Building a little momentum for Space as a platform topic
This morning, I got a great email from J, he should be the guy that gets some credit for getting this ball rolling, he emailed a bunch of people, initially.
Nothing about space on last night’s debate, but we didn’t have much time to organize that. However, we have about 2 weeks left – and a lot to do.
Please pass the word – vote on current questions (Rep and Dems) and create your own question. (http://dyn.politico.com/debate/) And let’s see if we can get a “story” generated with the help of the press.
Thanks.
MJL
P.s. This is NOT a “space elevator” task, but a “we need to get ourselves out into space – for everyone” mission. The following is the message I got from John!
mjl
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Mjl:
I want to be involved with organizing and supporting the space communities involvement in the political process. I identified the process on politico and sent messages to the operators of spacepolitics.com, nasawatch.com, space.com, marssociety.org, SpaceX.com, spacehab.com , faculty in planetary geology and science at several universities, thespaceshow.com, bigelowaerospace.com, members of Boeing Space Exploration down in Houston, some members of Science at NASA podcast’s publication team, the facebook marssociety members, the operators of the facebook groups: “support space exploration,” “supporters of mars direct,” and “the official nasa facebook group,” to name a few. I started sending out these messages on Saturday night, and I believe that they have had a major impact.
I believe that we can organize the space community into a forceful tool that can speak loud and clear in a unified way.
One of the problems that I see with the current organizations is that they are often to specific, and while there needs to be groups that are pushing specific initiatives, the fact that they charge to be members and that they exclude some of the space community hampers their growth and effectiveness. Perhaps we should have a new website ( spaceactive.com or something) that was free and had a constantly updated list of current legislation, debates, important politicians; as well as tools like fax.marssociety.org that allowed you to call, write, fax, or text message politicians and legislators. It could become a regular place for people to stop on the Internet and do something frequently to push the space agenda.
Let me know what you think.
Ad Astra,
John
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I think he has a great idea. So, if you want to get involved, send an email (and comment on this page) to info at liftport dot com with the subject “Political Will” and we will contact you.
Take care. mjl
***Update*** www.actionforspace.com is now live, and ready to get to work!
January 16th, 2008 at 8:53 pm
It took a while to read all those questions and vote on the space ones but if a few of them get asked in the up comming debates it was well worth the time.
January 17th, 2008 at 10:32 am
Update: rather that spaceaction.com, http://www.actionforspace.com is up and running. Things are going well, with dozens of visitors in the first 12 hours.
Come on by and drop a comment!
January 18th, 2008 at 2:06 pm
Agreed on the above points from John. A good model to follow, that I know of, might be ACORE – American Council on Renewable Energy, http://www.acore.org. This organization has as its members many of the more-industry specific associations like the solar association, wind association, as well as energy companies, individuals etc. They are very active in lobbying the federal government.