The space program is all about budget cuts, cancellation threats, and layoffs. People are only hired within the program. It’s a sedentary, middle aged environment where most employees are just sitting around waiting for retirement. Also, they seem to return to contractors after retirement, so they can get paid to sit at meetings part time. I look around and notice everyone- engineers, programmers, managers, are all just staring at Outlook and PowerPoint all day. As a young person yearning to see (and change) the world, do I want this to be my future?

Make presentations like this, ask questions, find answers to the questions the experienced people ask you, learn, learn, learn, and update the presentations with your new knowledge.

Respect is also important. I consider myself fortunate to work with someone who worked on Dyna-Soar, and with people who made the Apollo program happen. One of our great gifts is that we can take a high learning curve. Do that.

I’d also say that I see parallels to something that happened at my church. We got a Young Adult Group together, which gave us something to share, build relationships, and connect. Then we did a church service (the equivalent of your presentation), and suddenly were asked to become involved. I think every year since then we’ve had a Young Adult on the Board of Directors, several in all sorts of committees.

This website is one place to make connections. AIAA Young Professionals can be another resource.

However, I do feel that a paradigm shift is at hand and while I agree that Gen Y needs to earn their place at the table, the concept of just what being at the table means is changing.

In 1996 who would have thought that some ex-NASA guy could sit in his little condo and post things on a computer that would get him on national TV hundreds of times and allow him to personally tweak how NASA does things – daily?

I used to be the only one. It was fun – but a little lonely. Now there are hundreds – soon thousands – of people who can also do this. And the result of this will be … ?

Like I said, “being at the table” is morphing. But that does not mean that Gen Y is entitled to a seat at whatever it morphs into simply because they feel left out.

Every younger generation since the beginning of time has to fight to be heard.

That’s how human culture works.

However, therein lies and opportunity – and the path.

1) NO seat “at the table” is given, it must be earned. I’ve been in manned space over 20 years. My seat at the table was not given, it was earned by taking my basic education, learning my job, thinking critically, and CONTRIBUTING ideas that helped accomplish the mission. As the Boomers retire, I am finding my seat closer to the HEAD of the table and here is what I see relative to Gen Y. Intelligent, communicative, free thinking, do not know when to shut up, no desire to “stick with it” through a long or tough project, out for instant gratification, easily bored, self-important, and generally only in it for themselves.

Much of these negative attributes ARE NOT GenY, they are true about youth in general, they were true about me at one time.

2) The “establishment” is finding it rather difficult to take the GenY folks into their confidence. GenY folks think that data and information is PUBLIC ACCESS (e.g. music file sharing) but large companies, in fact the entire capitalist system is built on finding a better idea, KEEPING it a secret until the right time, and making your million before any competitor can find a way to do it better and/or cheaper. GenY seems to have a problem grasping this to some extent. Where NASA plays, the “sensitive data” isn’t sought by other companies, but by other governments, and not to make a better cake mixer either.

3) GenY seems to be self-important. For example, the expectation that they DESERVE a place at the table. The Greatest Generation gave us a victory in WWI and an industrial country. Boomers gave us CDs, microwaves, color TV, portable computers etc. Gen X is about to assume the reigns and we’ll see what that group does with their time at the forefront. THEN comes GenY. NO, you are NOT building the next generation rockets, that effort is the swan song of the boomers and the “coming of age” of the GenX folks, I know, I work with them. You are not yet at peak earning years, the youngest of you is just 8 years old. By and large, the older groups are still footing the bill too. So buck up and start earning your place at the table.

You have potential, LOTS of it, and you WILL change the world one day, but you also have to realize that, while you may throw out some of our ways as antiquated, you will also find, to your astonishment, that many of them are worth keeping.

To use Keith’s analogy; we may be able to mint a new set of keys to NASA by becoming the cause of and conduit to the broad and deep seeded support of NASA from Gen Y at large, and it may be possible to do it on a relatively short time line. By creating the opportunity for the NASA and the aerospace supporting segment of Gen Y (currently in the minority) to speak out to the rest of Gen Y, the relevance of NASA and exploration can be communicated.

Much like the Apollo program NASA astronauts and the teams of people supporting them inspired a whole generation (and more) to aspire for greatness in so many fields (not just space), we have the same opportunity here and now. Gen Y is still finding its niche in society, and NASA has the opportunity to provide inspiration at an important time for all of Gen Y.

I think the efforts associated with CoLab and the others who spoke on the Gen Y panel at the 3rd Exploration Conference are on the right track for building a fan base that can include the majority of Gen Y. If this were to happen, just as we are entering this exciting new era for space enterprise, the rest of the world can actually participate in the story as it unfolds. So, thats my thought…inspiring all of Gen Y could be the key that opens the door to the entire solar system.

If all the next generation of explorers wants is fancier information technology, that can be done far more easily than going to the Moon. But somehow, once people stop thinking small about getting wikis and blogs and twitters, there must be some deeper policy proposal that they could envision.”

Fantastic question/ challenge to pose! This should probably be its own discussion, but…
I want: 1) the world to see space as humanity’s future AND something realistic and here and now (“we” are going to the Moon) and be willing to work for that (this might entail education efforts, policy reform, all of the above) 2) NASA–environment linkage to be clear. Part of this “want” is wanting NASA to link to issues that are important to the public right now (i.e. the environment).

I’m over my two cents…

We may be few in number, but we are not a random sample. Each and every young person in the space business has a unique story about how they overcame great odds and defied the prevailing wisdom. They also had to have been brilliant and very very persistent.

The question is not whether we CAN be heard. That’s actually easier than most people think. The question is what do we WANT. People realize how we are few in number and they realize how sparse and scattered and isolated we each may be. But we are scattered everywhere, at all levels, in all offices, in all organizations.

If all the next generation of explorers wants is fancier information technology, that can be done far more easily than going to the Moon. But somehow, once people stop thinking small about getting wikis and blogs and twitters, there must be some deeper policy proposal that they could envision.