The Houston Chronicle’s science writer - Eric Berger, a supporter of the Gen Y outreach efforts - recently posted to his blog the answers Dr. Griffin gave him to questions about the “Gen-Y problem.”

http://blogs.chron.com/sciguy/archives/2008/03/nasa_chief_addr_1.html

I think Dr. Griffin had a golden opportunity here to highlight the astrobiology work NASA does when asked about how the revolution in the biological sciences is likely to draw more interest than space exploration.  After all, what is more exciting and potentially world-changing than the search for life elsewhere in the universe?  Imagine how much our world will change if we find fossils on Mars or even simple cellular life on Europa or Enceladus.  When we get the public engaged in what NASA is doing, we need to make the case for how space exploration will tie in with modern science and answering the fundamental questions of our existence.  I think that has a much stronger chance of getting people interested in what we are doing than appealing to power tools and MRIs.  Many will make the argument that those technologies would have been developed by someone else in the absence of a space program.  They’re probably right.

We need to emphasize the science and the research that can only be done out there on the frontier.  Everyone loves Hubble.  The technical issues aside, it’s a shining example to the world of what we do. We have to remind people that the only place nearby that we can build large radio and visual telescopes free of Earth’s signal pollution is the Moon.  If Orion is “Apollo-on-steroids,” lunar observatories would certainly be “Hubble-on-steroids.”  The MER robots are almost equally loved by the public these days.  Steven Squyres is a proponent of human exploration assisted by robot pathfinding because of the inherent limitations in what a robot can do.  We need to get public figures like him out front to dash the notion of human vs. robotic exploration and instead put forward a unified front.

I honestly can’t imagine a higher calling than helping us better understand our place in the universe and laying the groundwork for a truly spacefaring civilization.  If we’re going to get Gen Y (and everyone else) on board for the next phase, we’ve got to win their hearts and minds just like Hubble, Spirit, and Opportunity did.  We’ve got to communicate the breadth and the depth of what we do and how fundamentally important it is.