The Importance of Educating the Public About Space

What’s up LiftPort crew!

​I have realized that I have started my last 2 blog posts with the same opening words, so that was fun.   Anyways I will not be starting this blog the same, todays blog is about the importance of educating the public on space.   This post was inspired by a series of essays that I have been writing for LiftPort discussing community outreach and other stories that prove beneficial to tell about.
 
It has become increasingly more apparent to me while writing and researching that we, as a society, do not emphasize the importance of educating the public about space.  I wrote a blog post a couple of weeks ago about how hard it was to get people to take you seriously when you tell them you are working on a Moon Elevator; a large part of me is now convinced that people are reluctant to take it seriously because a Lunar Elevator is such a foreign concept to them.  The closest people have ever been to space is watching it on their TVs or computer screens.  The result of all of this is that we get a community that is un-engaged in the space world/industry.  This is at no fault of their own and I am not shaming anyone for being un-involved or unfamiliar in this industry.  Rather I am pointing out that we are not encouraging development and innovation in the ways that we should.  

I propose that we find a way to incorporate the history of, as well as the current state of space development into our school curriculum.  In so doing this, we as a society will be far more accepting of innovative ideas that have the potential to push humanity forward in new and exciting ways.  If people are exposed to space at a young age they will begin to normalize space in their minds, which will make innovating in this field standard and far easier.  
Above all else is the fact that society is making an unstoppable journey towards expanding the space industry.  Space is the next frontier for humanity and we have not been pursuing the technological research necessary to expand this field on the scale it deserves.  Space research is especially underfunded here in the US and if we wish to remain a world leader, we must begin exploring outside of this world.  It all begins with educating the public and normalizing the concepts of space, if we can manage this, space will prove lucrative and extremely beneficial to the human race. 

​Till next week!
Griffin