1

To MARS and BEYOND

Georgia Tech Team Final Report

NASA MEANS BUSINESS 2003

Georgia Institute of Technology 225 North Avenue

Atlanta, GA 30332-0150

2

TABLE OF CONTENTS Team Profile .........................................................................................................3 Summary ..............................................................................................................4 Current Public Perceptions and Communication Policy: .......................................5 The Basic 7 Empirical Challenges ........................................................................8 Assessing Value ...................................................................................................9 Methodology in Determining Choice of Topic and Range of Discussion.............10 Young Adults Analysis ........................................................................................10 Business Investors Analysis ...............................................................................11 Survey Design & Purpose...................................................................................15 Survey Formulation.............................................................................................16 Survey Sampling & Statistical Significance.........................................................16 Some Preliminary Responses and Trends..........................................................16 Public Service Announcements ..........................................................................17 Spreading the Message - Outreach Activities .....................................................19 Appendix A: Methodology ...................................................................................21 Appendix B: Table Information............................................................................22

3

Team Profile

Team Leader:

Priya Gopalakrishnan (M.S Student, Aerospace) Policy & Communication Strategy Analysis:

Don Changeau (M.S Student, Public Policy) Content Development & Audience Reaction Issues:

Ian Sharpe (Junior, Electrical) Thilini Rangedera (Freshman, Aerospace) Mitsuyo Tsuda (Freshman, Aerospace) Multimedia Design & Development: Waqar Zaidi (Junior, Aerospace) Dominic Rupnarine (Junior, Electrical) Faculty Advisor:

Dr. Komerath (Professor, Aerospace)

4

Summary

The Georgia Tech team strongly believes that a case for NASA’s Mars Exploration Program can be made much more convincing to the public if it is set in the context of the broader Space program. Examination of present public understanding of the Mars program and NASA’s current communication policy has revealed several interesting results. The message being tailored towards a specific audience, our team targeted two widely different groups which are seen as being crucial. One is “Young Adults” who see more merit in public investment for a Space program filled with opportunities job, research and exploration. The other audience group is “Investors” who want to learn of the opportunities to develop economic multipliers from the Space program.

Our team’s approach was to tie the Space program into the “Average Joe’s” life, and to show the public why the Mars program is a vital component of a coherent plan towards the improvement of everyday life and advancement of our civilization. We brought together the perspectives from communities working on Space Resource Utilization, tourism, construction, aerospace and other businesses, along with visionaries on space exploration, to work towards a common goal. Within the context of a space-based economy, the new NASA plan for Mars exploration was conveyed to the general public as necessary steps for not just technology development for outer space activities but also on our own home planet.

5

Current Public Perceptions and Communication Policy:

Our analysis of the current public perception of NASA’s MARS and other space programs reveals several interesting facts: 1. Space is for “kindergartners”:

One of the key reasons for the selection of an adult or young adult audience was because of the common perception among the public that space is for kids. Everyone who has grown up in America, and most of the rest of the world in the past 30 years has been exposed to NASA publicity on the Apollo, Shuttle, Voyager and Mars exploration programs, as well as to Star Wars and Battlestar Galactica. As children, many dreamed of going to faraway galaxies. As they grew up, they went on to other things, which were viewed as “serious” business.

Today, NASA makes very strong efforts to communicate the excitement of the Space Program to children. One danger of this is the possibility of today and tomorrow’s children growing up thinking of space exploration as something to excite kids, competing for resources with “PlayStation 2” or “Beanie Babies”. Even NASA’s tourist facilities at KSC and JSC are primarily kid-oriented. NASA faces some danger of being seen as a childhood interest, but not very relevant to the serious grown-up business of making a living and accumulating a decent stock portfolio. 2. NASA and me? With use of Georgia Tech’s BUSI (Business Index1) database, a preliminary search was conducted to determine the choice of topics. The keywords searched were “NASA” and “Mars”. This produced a finding of 212 publications that communicated each of these keywords. These findings were then analyzed with VantagePoint2 software. The findings off of the BUSI database enable us to analyze the frequency of keyword listings and also enable a determination of frequency of phrases used in the abstracts. These findings are on Table 1. On Table 1 we find a listing of keywords that were found 3 or more times, and phrases used in the abstracts with 3 or more occurrences. This serves as a good basis for evaluating the choice of topics that are present in a vast array of

1 The Business Index (BUSI; from 1988-present) contains "citations and abstracts of articles from over 900 management, trade and industry journals and newspapers. Includes coverage of the Wall Street Journal, and New York Times business section. Provided by Georgia Tech Library" 2 VantagePoint is text mining technology developed by Search Technology Inc. through an alliance with the Georgia Tech's TPAC (Technology Policy and Assessment Center) and the Intelligent Information Services Corporation.

6

text media. The searched terms “NASA” and “Mars” naturally show up as being most prevalent among keywords and within the abstracts. What is listed beyond the search terms, however, is what enables us to determine the choice of topics communicated most frequently in text media. Such topics as “space flight”, “planet”, “life”, “atmosphere”, “space vehicles”, “meteorite”, and “life on other planets” are all just some of the frequent examples of topics chosen to be communicated.

Case by case, where keywords may also apply to a discussion of Earth as well as characterizing Mars, we find that, by in large, the discussions put forth in the media are strictly concerning Mars. That is to say the following: when the topic of “atmosphere” (for example) is frequently communicated, we find that it is almost always in reference to the Martian atmosphere and not being related to Earth’s atmosphere3. Also, when “life” is being frequently communicated, it is mostly discussion (or more accurately speculation) about the possibility of existing life on Mars and rarely about improving life that does exist on Earth. Furthermore, when frequent communications of “industries” arise, we find that they are instances of highly marginalized industries, in and of themselves, such as the “Space vehicles industry”, or they are marginalized applications of large industries, such as the “Computer software industry”. These findings all have very important implications when communicating to a public that is seeking to view and listen to that which pertains to them (here and now, and not on other planets with industries or subsets of industries that they never to rarely ever encounter). Furthermore, by correlating the frequency of keyword searches with the frequency of phrases communicated in the abstracts (see Table 2); we see much marginalized aspects (i.e. very limited ranges) of discussion. So for example, when the abstract phase “scientists” is being communicated to the public in the context of the NASA and Mars search, we find they are only spoken of in conjunction with the keywords “mars probes”, “life on other planets”, and “outer space”. We can easily determine this to be a limited range of discussion, because we know that the work of NASA scientists are not limited to “mars probes”, “life on other planets”, and “outer space”.

3 This is confirmed by referencing the context of each term in the publication’s abstract.

7

Table 1: Frequency of Keywords and Phrases within Abstracts

# of

Rec

ords

Keywords

# of

Rec

ords

Abstract Phrases

Mul

ti W

ord

Phra

ses

70 United States. National Aeronautics and Space Administration 83 Mars 060 United States. National Aeronautics and Space 34 NASA 052 Mars (Planet) 11 planet 037 Mars (Planet)--Discovery, exploration, etc. 11 life 018 Space flight to Mars 9 National Aeronautics 116 Administration--Researc 9 1997 013 Mars probes 9 Mission 09 Administration--Plannin 8 pathfinder 08 Life on other planets 7 1999 08 Outer space 7 will 07 Manned space flight 6 1996 07 Space probes 7 Mars Polar Lander 16 Administration--Discovey, exploration, etc. 6 red planet 16 Administration--Managemnt 6 Space Administration NASA 16 Aerospace industry. 5 atmosphere 06 Space flight to the moon 5 mars Global Surveyor 16 Space vehicles 6 scientists 06 Space vehicles industry--Research. 5 spacecraft 06 United States. Jet Propulsion Laboratory 5 1993 05 Astronautics and state 4 evidence 05 Bush, George 4 Mars Climate Orbiter 15 Mars Observer (Space probe) 4 part 05 Outer space--Discovery, exploration, etc. 3 data 05 Space vehicles industry--Management. 3 end 04 Mars (Planet)--Research. 3 exploration 04 Martin Marietta Corp. 4 findings 04 Meteorites 3 first 03 Boeing Co. 3 france 05 Books--Reviews. 3 4-Jul 13 Computer software industry. 3 landing 03 employees. 3 Mars Observer 13 etc. 3 Mars Pathfinder 13 France--Relations with the United States. 3 meteorite 03 Moon 3 missions 03 Satellites 3 nanobacteria 03 Space flight to Mars--Planning. 3 orbit 03 Space vehicles industry--Accidents. 3 planet Mars 13 Space vehicles industry--Planning. 3 planet's surface 13 SpaceDev Inc. 3 plans 0

3 researchers 03 Sojourner rover 13 water 0

8

Table 2: Correlating # of Instances Keywords are found with Phrases in Abstracts

The Basic 7 Empirical Challenges The suggested change in policy and concluding analysis rest on the primacy of the basic 7 empirical challenges a mission to Mars would have to overcome in order to be successful. The logic states that if a mission to Mars could prove to be successful, then so too can our applications of these methods of overcoming the same challenges here on Earth. These critical empirical factors, which are directly linked to quality of life concerns here on Earth, consist of the following factors, but are certainly not limited to these broad labels. 1) Food, 2) shelter, 3) clothing, 4) air quality, 5) waste management, 6) water purification & recycling, and 7) renewable energy are the basic 7 empirical challenges that face engineers and scientists in order to produce a successful mission to Mars.

Keywords - # of Records 57 33 10 9 9 8 8 8 7 7 6 6 6 6 5 5 5 5 4 4

Abst

ract

(Phr

ases

) - #

of

Reco

rds

Mar

s

NA

SA

plan

et

Nat

iona

l Aer

onau

tics

life

Mis

sion

path

finde

r

1997

1999

will

red

plan

et

Mar

s P

olar

Lan

der

Spa

ce A

dmin

istra

tion

NA

SA

1996

mar

s G

loba

l Sur

veyo

r

atm

osph

ere

spac

ecra

ft

scie

ntis

ts

part

Mar

s C

limat

e O

rbite

r

70 United States. N 27 16 7 4 3 2 5 6 3 2 2 2 1 1 3 2 360 United States. N 14 10 1 4 2 2 2 2 2 5 3 1 1 252 Mars (Planet) 27 15 7 2 3 3 5 7 5 1 2 1 2 4 2 237 Mars (Planet)--D 10 7 3 3 1 4 2 2 3 1 2 2 218 Space flight to M 8 4 2 1 2 1 1 1 1 1 2 216 Administration--R 6 5 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 113 Mars probes 6 2 1 2 1 3 2 1 1 1 1 2 1 19 Administration--P 1 18 Life on other plan 6 4 1 2 1 18 Outer space 3 4 1 1 1 1 1 17 Space probes 4 1 1 1 27 Manned space flight6 Administration--Discovey, exploration, etc. 6 Space flight to th 16 Space vehicles in 1 2 1 1 16 Space vehicles 1 3 1 16 United States. Jet Propulsion Labora 1 16 Administration--Managemnt 1 1 16 Aerospace industry. 5 Mars Observer (S 1 1 1

9

Other empirical challenges, such as transportation, are certainly critical to a mission to Mars, hence the frequent keywords reference to “space vehicles”, but the empirical challenges met in transportation which do not overlap the concerns of the basic 7 are not as directly pertinent/necessary to people on Earth and hence our public. Transportation only arises as a concern in a Mars focused context, because without that challenge being overcome, the basic 7 challenges can never be tested. But, as noted earlier, if the public are being communicated to in terms of issues that do not have any bearing on them or only with marginal effect, then poor communications is the result.

Assessing Value In the development of our messages tailored to the two different critical audiences of “Young Adults” and “Business Investors”, we proceed by repeating the steps of assessing the 1) choice of topics and 2) range of discussion. In the prior analysis of keywords “NASA” + “Mars”, assessing the choice of topics in an overview of NASA’s current message was determined by assessing the frequency of keywords and abstract phrases found within publications. As for assessing the range of discussion, the keywords were then correlated with the abstract phrases. The correlation aids us in determining how abstract phrase and keywords are being employed with one another. So in Table 1, we saw that the abstract phrase “United States. Jet Propulsion Laboratory” was only spoken in conjunction with the keywords “Mission” + “pathfinder”. How the “NASA” + “Mars” analysis differs from the upcoming analysis is that we are now issuing a value judgment in noting where the current messages in the media are disjoint with the two audiences of “Young Adults” and “Business Investors”. By value judgment we point out the following. There exist only two kinds of questions; questions of fact and questions of value. The “NASA” + “Mars” analysis was in response to a question of fact, namely: What is NASA currently communicating to the public about the Mars program. The following analysis for “Young Adults” and “Business Investors” is in response to a question of value, namely: How should NASA communicate to the public about the Mars program. As also stated before, the goal of our PSA is to get people’s attention towards the space program. We find it significant that in the question of fact findings, there exist NO keywords or phrases signifying a domestic audience4, with the exception of the president “Bush, George” (see Table 1). In bringing about a change in this lack of audience, we see value in introducing two specific domestic audiences (“Young Adults” and “Business Investors”) to this frequency listing of keywords and phrases communicated to the public in Table 1.

The following tables for the audience of “Young Adults” and “Business Investors” employ the same tables as seen before in the “NASA” + “Mars” analysis (Tables 1 and 2). What is now in focus in assessing both the choice of 4 By audience the focus is placed mainly on people/individuals. In Table 1, Martin Marietta Corp. could be viewed as a member of the domestic audience, but a large corporate entity does not reach the individual.

10

topics and range of discussion for communicating “NASA” and “Mars” to the public are Tables 4 and 6. Figure 1 below depicts the methodology in assessing the best topic choice. The range of discussion will be limited, for reasons noted earlier. This range will be limited to the single keyword or abstract phrase which does not coincide with the searched parameters. By this, we wish to avoid the identity property; we do not wish to say that our focus on “Young Adults” ought to be with respect to “Young Adults”, yet we wish to remain significantly close to the origin (Figure 1) so that our appeal to the audience of “Young Adults” is maximized.

Figure 1

In Figure 1, the further we are removed from the origin (i.e. identity keywords) the less the impact in increasing audience attention to the Mars program. The methodology brought about in this process of determining how far to leave the identity terms (the origin) and how close to remain to the origin is seen in the following.

Methodology in Determining Choice of Topic and Range of Discussion

A good choice of topic is to look for the correlation numbers. The higher

the correlation, as the numbers of the chart entail, the better the attraction of the audience. Of those high correlation numbers which can be seen as within the identity property, we reject such topics. The highest value remaining is then tested to see if it meets the constraint of domestic audience. If this does not, then we proceed to the next topic. When we reach a topic that meets the constraint of domestic audience, that is then BOTH the chosen topic and limited range of discussion.

Young Adults Analysis

Following the methodology above, in Table 4, we can reach the chosen topic of “Employment” (note: this is technically listed as “Young adults-Employment”). However, in the Young Adults analysis, we find something reasonable to understand, but previously unaccounted for. We find that the identity “Young Adults” has a stronger correlation with “young people” (44) and NOT “young adults” (17). This can be attributed to another strong correlated abstract phrase: “Post-baby boom generation” (10). What this tells us is that we ought (again, value assessment in bringing about greatest attention in audience)

11

to use the keyword “young people” instead of “young adults”. This is because the keyword “young adults” brings in issues of generational division; an issue we wish to avoid because it hampers our impact in drawing the greatest attention to the space program. So in using the keyword “young people” still under the identity principle, we search for the next highest correlation value closest to the origin. This turns out to be the abstract phrase “United Kingdom”, but it fails the constraint of domestic audience, so we proceed to look for the next largest correlation value closest to the origin. This produces the finding of “Young adults—Employment”. This finding is not under the identity principle of “young adults” = “young adults/humans/people” in that it brings the focus to “Employment” as it affects these people. It also meets the constraints of domestic audience, as there certainly exist “young people” in the US who are concerned with “Employment”. This (Employment) thusly constitutes both the keyword and the range of discussion; hence our PSA to “young adults” will employ this language of “young people” (heeding the lesson of this analysis) and also discuss issues of employment. These issues of employment will range from how “young people” will be able to engage in (take part in) various aspects of a space based economy to what prospects currently exist for being employed in matters related to space.

Business Investors Analysis

The methodology applied for the “Young Adults” analysis is identical to this analysis of the “Business Investors” audience (Table 6). “Small business” (43) is found to be the choice of topic and range of discussion. “Small business” is neither identical nor approximately identical to the search parameter “Business Investor”, and it meets the constraint of domestic audience, while being the highest correlated value closest to the origin. This entails that our PSA directed to the “Business Investor” audience will draw maximum attention to the space program if the appeal is made to Small Business and the range of discussion surrounding concepts such as investment, growth, services, management, etc – see Table 5’s abstract phrase listing.

12

Table 3: Frequency of Keywords & Phrases within Abstracts – “Young” + “Adults”

# of

Rec

ords Keywords

# of

Rec

ords Abstract Phrases

Mul

ti W

ord

Phra

ses

403 Young adults 238 young adults 1

96 Young adult literature 116 young people 1

53 Books 103 children 0

34 United Kingdom 86 adults 0

32 Teenagers 57 Number 0

28 Children's literature 55 teenagers 0

28 Television broadcasting industry 53 young 0

28 Young adults--Employment. 47 age 0

27 Post-baby boom generation 40 parents 0

25 Publishing industry 30 1995 0

25 Young adults--Attitudes. 30 1996 0

23 Public libraries 30 results 0

22 Books--Reviews. 30 study 0

20 Baby boom generation 29 UK 020 Bibliography 29 women 018 Children 27 education 016 Young adults--Marketing. 27 products 0

15 etc. 26 1994 0

15 Television programs 26 survey 0

14 Periodical publishing 25 England 0

13 Advertising 24 time 0

13 Advertising agencies 23 research 0

13 Young adults--Conduct of life. 22 one 0

13 Youth 21 1997 0

12 Consumer behavior 21 publisher 0

12 Employment 21 will 0

12 Soft drink industry 21 young children 1

12 Young adult literature--Publishing. 20 market 0

12 Youth as consumers 20 permission 0

11 AIDS (Disease) 19 consumers 0

11 Unemployment 19 youth 0

11 Young adults--Surveys. 18 future 0

10 Marketing 18 information 0

10 Young adult fiction 18 need 0

10 Young adult services librarians 18 popularity 0

10 Young adults--Political activity. 18 population 0

18 sales 0

18 trend 0

13

Table 4: Correlating # of Instances Keywords are found with Phrases in Abstracts – “Young” + “Adult”

Keywords - # of R 238 116 103 86 57 55 53 47 40 30 30 30 30 29 29 27 27 26 26 25

Abs

tract

(Phr

ases

) -

# of

Rec

ords

youn

g ad

ults

youn

g pe

ople

child

ren

adul

ts

Num

ber

teen

ager

s

youn

g

age

pare

nts

1996

resu

lts

1995

stud

y

wom

en

UK

prod

ucts

educ

atio

n

surv

ey

1994

Eng

land

403 Young adults 17 44 7 7 6 8 9 10 14 7 7 7 11 5 7 4 8 5 3 1296 Young adult literat 1 1 1 1 253 Books34 United Kingdom 3 12 3 4 1 2 1 4 1 2 6 1 3 1 532 Teenagers 6 2 2 5 9 1 4 2 3 5 1 2 328 Television broadca 3 1 1 1 1 1 2 128 Young adults--Employm 7 1 4 2 1 1 2 228 Children's literature 2 1 227 Post-baby boom g 10 2 2 1 1 125 Publishing industr 1 1 1 225 Young adults--Atti 1 4 1 123 Public libraries22 Books--Reviews. 20 Bibliography20 Baby boom genera 7 3 2 1 1 1 1 1 218 Children 1 5 8 6 2 1 3 1 1 1 1 1 116 Young adults--Marketing. 15 etc. 1 1 115 Television program 2 1 2 1 2 114 Periodical publishi 4 1 1 1 1

14

Table 5: Frequency of Keywords & Phrases within Abstracts – “Business” + “Investors”

# of

Rec

ords Keywords

# of

Rec

ords Abstract Phrases

189 Foreign investments 1353 investors156 Small business 709 business134 Banking industry 408 foreign investors130 divestments. 387 companies130 Dow Jones Industrial Average (Index)--Statistics. 317 company123 Nasdaq Composite Index (Index)--Statistics. 243 businesses123 Securities industry--Statistics. 179 country112 Investments, Foreign 176 one105 regulations,etc. 163 market105 United States. Securities and Exchange Commission--Laws, 160 number104 Investments 153 government103 divestments 151 industry100 Standard and Poor's 500-Stock Price Index 138 investment99 Index)--Statistics. 131 firms93 Stock-exchange--Statistics. 126 capital88 Venture capital companies 124 199687 China 122 analysts74 Computer industry 121 institutional investors73 Corporations 114 199472 Investors 113 199570 Stock-exchange 112 banks67 Mutual funds 111 China67 Venture capital 111 investments64 United States 107 result56 etc. 105 money56 Securities industry 105 will55 Investment advisers 104 199753 Economic development 98 199352 Investor relations--Management. 92 growth51 China 92 services50 Financial services industry 90 problems49 Insurance industry 89 need49 Real estate industry 89 region47 employees. 88 investing47 Telecommunications industry 88 stocks47 United States. Securities and Exchange 86 199843 Privatization 86 management43 Russia 84 economy39 Computer software industry. 80 UK

15

Table 6: Correlating # of Instances Keywords are found with Phrases in Abstracts – “Business” + “Investors”

Keywords - # of Records 1353 709 408 387 317 243 179 176 163 160 153 151 138 131 126 124 122 121 114 113

Abs

tract

(Phr

ases

) -

# of

Rec

ords

inve

stor

s

busi

ness

fore

ign

inve

stor

s

com

pani

es

com

pany

busi

ness

es

coun

try

one

mar

ket

num

ber

gove

rnm

ent

indu

stry

inve

stm

ent

firm

s

capi

tal

1996

anal

ysts

inst

itutio

nal i

nves

tor s

1994

1995

189 Foreign investments 35 30 85 17 4 13 24 7 5 14 17 2 15 4 5 14 2 2 9 13156 Small business 43 8 13 13 10 3 6 2 3 3 3 6 5 9 3 1 4 1 3134 Banking industry 41 24 6 4 4 7 5 8 4 6 2 8 2 2 7 6 7 8 12 2130 divestments. 21 6 2 6 9 2 2 4 1 3 1 1 1 6 4 5 1130 Dow Jones Industrial Average (Index)--Statistics. 123 Nasdaq Composite Index (Index)--Statistics. 123 Securities industry--Statistics. 112 Investments, Foreign 12 25 49 8 2 6 13 1 2 3 11 6 11 6 5 2 1 1

105 United States. Securities and Exchange

1 1

105 regulations,etc. 1 1104 Investments 41 17 2 9 3 10 6 3 3 2 3 1 11 2 1 2 2 4 2 1103 divestments 17 8 1 8 8 2 4 2 2 2 1 2 2 1 2 2100 Standard and Poor's 500-Stock Price Index 99 Index)--Statistics. 93 Stock-exchange--Statistics. 88 Venture capital companies 26 5 2 13 3 7 4 2 1 2 4 5 3 4 1 3 3 387 China 17 19 40 8 1 3 15 1 6 4 11 3 4 4 4 4 1 4 674 Computer industry 29 13 6 25 1 2 6 4 2 5 5 1 4 273 Corporations 20 15 5 17 8 3 1 2 2 1 5 2 7 3 1 2 3 172 Investors 20 8 4 6 1 3 3 2 1 4 1 4 1 3 1

As part of the ongoing audience research in order to better improve the communication strategy, the Georgia Tech team has set up an online survey which is presently active and gathering more and more data. The survey may be found at: www.advancedsurvey.com - enter survey # 5224

Survey Design & Purpose

This survey is designed to gather the perspectives of those working in particular industries and determine how they view their work in relation to a prospective NASA Mission to Mars. This purpose sets forth a very clear survey audience of working professionals or enthusiasts who are “associated” with a given industry. The questions employed are standard Likert scale responses and free form responses.

16

Survey Formulation In formulating the survey, several resources were employed. First, the web site www.advancedsurvey.com served as the forum for provision of the survey. The questions asked were based upon prior survey research conducted by the UT-Austin NASA Means Business team in 2001. The determinations they provide, serve as the basis upon which “lead statements” are made within the survey.

Survey Sampling & Statistical Significance The survey will remain available on the advancedsurvey.com website until the each age group in question 1 and each industry represented in question 3 reaches statistical significance. Statistical significance in each age group will vary according to the census figures citing the age groups total population. Statistical significance can vary according to the approximations used in determining the number of people in each given industry.

Some Preliminary Responses and Trends Some of the early survey result appear to corroborate our earlier findings that majority of the target audience do not see a MARS mission as benefiting their lives in the near future and so are unwilling to increase their support for the space program. When asked in what roles they see themselves as potentially contributing to a NASA Mission to MARS, 67% of the responses chose “as a supportive citizen” and 0% indicated chose “entrepreneurial support”. It is this attitude that we believe can be changed through our PSA’s as well as other campaigns initiated by NASA to educate the adult population about the business and job opportunities in a Space Based Economy with the MARS Mission paving the way towards this concept. 5. Please indicate the choices to which you agree to the following statement: I see myself as potentially contributing to a Mission to Mars in the following roles.

Supportive Citizen 8 61.54%

Employee (for NASA, private contractor, or academe) 3 23.08%

Entrepreneurial Support 0 0.00%

Volunteering Capacity 1 7.69%

Student 3 23.08%

17

Other 1 7.69%

I do not see any potential contributing role for me. 3 23.08%

Free Form Response Field for this question.

6. Please indicate the level to which you agree to the following statement: I see a Mars Mission as enabling an improved quality of life here on Earth.

Strongly Agree 1 7.69%

Agree 5 38.46%

Neutral 5 38.46%

Disagree 2 15.38%

Strongly Disagree 0 0.00%

14. In the public, there is a low awareness that NASA's work contributes to such fields as medical research and environmental monitoring, just to name two. Do you think NASA should project its work as multidisciplinary within the administration or rather project the fact that NASA engages a multitude of markets external to the administration?

Multidisciplinary Administration 2 15.38%

Engages a Multitude of Markets 4 30.77%

Both 6 46.15%

The survey results above seem to indicate that making the public more aware of the spin-offs of space technology would create more enthusiasm and support for NASA’s MARS and other space program. This survey is still gathering responses and we are not yet in a position to report trends/responses which are statistically significant but we are trying to achieve that through our out reach efforts.

Public Service Announcements Having obtained a basic overview of the prevailing ideas among the target audience, our PSA’s were developed to address some of their major concerns. Two main themes were chosen to bring together a message for our target audience. One of the PSA’s deals with the business, investment and job

18

opportunities created by the space program while the other PSA focuses on relating space with every day life. This was done with the help of creative animations and images which depict the possibilities of a space based economy which functions much like our own economy back on earth. This was done keeping in mind that we would like to get our audience to think of space as a natural part of their lives rather than just some thing for NASA and for astronauts. It is of course known that for us humans to be interested in something and to help promote it, we need to be convinced of the benefits that the venture will bring into our lives. Our PSA’s therefore focused on a more humanized approach. The PSA’s relate space to every day ideas and technologies that are affecting our lives right here and right now. By putting forth images that the audience can immediately relate to, we hope to create a sense of security and support for NASA’s MARS Mission and other space programs. Like any good media production, we realized another important component in capturing audience attention is the music background score. For the PSA which deals with the business aspects of space, we chose a calm and soothing background score with a lot of string instruments. This was done with the intent of creating a safe feeling towards the ideas presented. The PSA which deals with the technological spin offs of the space program has a more fast paced, upbeat music with a lot of percussion instruments in order to create a mood of innovation and achievement. Again the images themselves depict the various advancements that we have made as a result of the space program. Through our PSA’s we believe that we can arouse a feeling of both excitement and support in our audience’s minds and also help inform them about how NASA forms a part of their everyday lives.

19

Spreading the Message - Outreach Activities

• CNN Headlines News – We have had the unique opportunity of

presenting our PSA’s to reporters from CNN Headlines. A brief interview segment was also shot where we had the chance to express our views on how a Mission to MARS would open doors towards construction of space based facilities for businesses and which would provide a platform for a space based economy and provide unlimited opportunities for us here on earth. A copy of the actual PSA’s has been given to the CNN reporters. The interview and possibly a segment of the PSA’s are expected to air some time in the near future therefore reaching a world-wide audience.

• WABE Radio - We have also been in touch with program coordinators at the WABE radio and are trying to get our PSA’s to them. We hope to eventually get people to discuss the endless possibilities that space can provide to improve our life here on earth with MARS program serving as a the platform for that.

• Georgia Tech Media – We have also been able to provide the Georgia

Tech Media with our PSA’s as well as a special survey which will reach out to our extensive network of 70,000 alumni and their families.

• Magazine Articles - New Scientist, a well-known British publication, has

done two articles over the past 2 years describing first our “Acoustic Shaping” work (“Out of Thin Air”, Sep. 2001) and the Tailored Force Fields work (“Rubble-Rousing in Space”, October 11, 2002). These articles have excited considerable interest, worldwide, showing a very high level of public interest in the prospects for developing business and living environments beyond Earth.

Josh Magazine, New Delhi. Recently, an article has appeared in

“Josh”, a children’s magazine published in Hindi in New Delhi, describing the Tailored Force Fields work and its relevance to future habitats and economic opportunities in Space. Malayala Manorama, a Kerala (India) Based newspaper, has also presented a full-page Sunday Supplement article on the TFF work.

• A technical interaction is in progress with a PhD candidate in Fashion

Design at London University, UK, on using tailored force fields in microgravity to design new fabrics and new shape-designs. A proposal has been submitted to the UK/ Europe Space agencies based on her ideas.

20

• The Georgia Space Grant Consortium’s help will be enlisted in presenting our products to Georgia-area schools. They have been given CD’s and DVD’s containing our PSA’s so that they may be presented at Elementary and Middle Schools around Georgia.

• The web pages of the Aerospace Digital Library which we operate

(http://www.adl.gatech.edu ) includes all of our past years work for the NASA Means Business Competitions and will continue to be expanded to include this year’s competition and to reach out to the community.

• Visit: http://www.adl.gatech.edu/nmb/nmb2003/

21

Appendix A: Methodology Methodology: All information noted as searched on the BUSI, ENGI, and NTIS databases were found via the GTEL (Georgia Tech Electronic Library). The web site at which these databases can be linked is: https://www.library.gatech.edu/databases_frame.htm. (Georgia Tech ID and passes are necessary to access these specific database services offered by Georgia Tech). By searching the exact same keywords noted for these searches, within this year 2002, will produce an exact duplicate of the findings.

The database findings were then saved as a text file. This text file containing all information such as author, title, date, abstract, journal, etc is then imported in the VantagePoint software (also a product of Georgia Tech in conjunction with other organizations). VantagePoint, being text mining software, enables the production of the tables viewed by running pre-established operations within the software that are specified to each database utilized. The “.conf” (configuration) files, which contain the pre-established operations, offer unique parameters to database output formats that are specific to BUSI, ENGI, NTIS, and many other databases as well. Still in development, VantagePoint does not have .conf files for ALL databases currently accessible viable GTEL but those databases used in this work (i.e. database services offered by Georgia Tech) were not in that category.

Actual articles themselves, for the most part, are not available in electronic form, unlike for example JSTOR which makes it a point to have all articles in its database available in PDF and HTML form. Articles needed from GTEL, however, which do not have an electronic form, may be obtained in hard form within the Georgia Tech Library; if the Georgia Tech Library does not specifically have that particular journal stored, then it may be obtained from the Georgia Tech Library via any number of various library networks that run state-wide, nation-wide, and world-wide. The actual articles themselves were not needed for the type of analysis need in this work.

22

Appendix B: Table Information Table Information:

In the BUSI database, much like a vast number of other databases, the author is required to note what keywords pertain to the article written. These keywords are what the author determines to be central or critical to the article cited. Also abstracts are offered. VantagePoint can “mine the text” for various word phrases (employing linguistic rules in several languages). These are the “Abstract Phrases” that are listed. So for example, in Table 1 in the 212 articles found, the keywords “Space vehicles” was found listed for 6 of the publications. Also, for the same 212 articles the abstract phrase “red planet” was found listed in 6 of the publications.

In Table 2 we are able to correlate (determine the relationship or lack

thereof between) keywords, listed on the top from left to right, and abstract phrases, listed on the left from top to bottom. So sticking to the examples of the 6 publication findings with the keyword “Space vehicles” and the 6 publication findings with the abstract phrase “red planet”, Table 2 tells us that not one of the 12 total findings combines those two specific parameters. But application of these findings should account for closely related keywords, in which case the keyword “Space vehicles industry—Research” notes 1 article which also has in its abstract the phrase “red planet”. For Table 2, the top 20 most frequent keywords and abstract phrases were chosen for the purpose correlation between to two parameters. Blank cells on the table signify no 1 article ties the concepts in the row and column. The numbers found within the cells simply note the number of articles, out of the 212 total, that do combine the row and column terms. The closer one gets to the upper left hand corner of the table, the stronger the correlation; the further away from that corner the weaker the correlation.