And for my peeps, we may think we’re smarter than the grey beard because we can use blackberries, blogs and wikis, but we’re not. Who do you think created all the things we use today (cars, microwaves, flat panel monitors)? There is always someone smarter, faster, crazier and better looking. Keep the egos at bay and show some humility.

Here’s a link to McCrindle Research

Below are my opinions on this issue. I do not expect that you will agree with them, I only ask that you respect them in the same way I have respected yours. Without mutual respect, we will not have a future in space to debate.

That being said…

When President Kennedy announced that the U.S. would set foot on the moon before the end of the 1960s, the early space pioneers did not stand up and question the ability of a bunch of engineers in their mid-20s who wanted to take them there. Instead, they took their place beside you as America rallied behind your effort to place humans on the moon. Chris Kraft, Gene Kranz, Dr. John Houbolt, and many others became mentors to you, developing and teaching you the skills necessary to design, build, and safely operate the vehicles which placed humans in space and continue to do so today. Without their willingness to work cohesively with you, you would not be designing the vehicles that will take us back to the moon and on to Mars.

And when it came time, they turned the space program over to you.

In order to ensure the survivability of NASA and human spaceflight, there is one, inevitable fact that each of you must come to recognize. You may not like it, but you will one day retire. When that time comes, you will have to relinquish the reigns to your space program and pray that we don’t screw it up. This agency will soon experience a mass influx of my peers. The thought crossing your mind should be, “Am I doing my part to prepare them for the task at hand?” It should not be, “sit down…shut up…get back to work…this is MY space program!”.

For those of you who are reading this and are already thinking that I am just another one of those ‘rebel rousers’ looking to take my spot at the table rather than earn it, I ask that you think about the following:

- How did it make you feel to see Neil Armstrong take that first step?

- What was it like to see the Space Shuttle roar off the launch pad for the first time?

- What did you feel after the loss of your friends and colleagues on Challenger and Columbia?

It is those same feelings that stir and excite me. You get to work for NASA!!! You are flying THE Space Shuttle!!! You know those people orbiting 200+ miles above us!!! I want to do that, too. Can you blame me? If you can, I only hope that at least one thing in your life excites you as much as the space program excites me.

Am I confident in my skills? You bet I am! Is that a bad thing? Absolutely not. Will I let that confidence lead me to make un-informed decisions on the job? Absolutely not. I have witnessed first-hand the consequences of doing so.

If you have been reading this, by now you are probably thinking to yourself, “This kid is crazy. He thinks his little time as a co-op has prepared him for making potentially life-altering decisions.” Rest assured, I know I have a long way to go. As each of you had your coming of age, so will I.

I am not asking to take my seat at the table. I am simply asking to be let into the dining room.

So what is my purpose in writing all of this? My hope is that it will show you and I are very similar. To borrow from the phrase Keith quoted and adding my own spin, “As I am, you once were. As you are, I will soon be.”

My desire is that you will look past my flaws and see the fresh canvas. You have the opportunity to paint the stars. As you do, I will try my best to understand that a masterpiece takes time. However, what we must both understand is that a masterpiece is only a masterpiece if it is one day finished.

When that day comes, will you be able to step back and admire your work?

………………………………………………….

After writing this, I realized I did so without mentioning any of the characteristics specific to “my” generation. My willingness to participate in space exploration has nothing to do with my iPod, Blackberry, Facebook, or ability to use all three while driving. My willingness was born out of a desire to explore. I want to see that blue marble we call home. Frank White has described this as the “overview effect.”

But beyond Earth, I see that reddish-orange-brown marble and call it our future.

I am truly sorry to read your response. (I’d answer this in private, jessy, but I don’t have this individual’s contact info.) I don’t doubt that NASA Watch has the audience that you say it does. I know full well of Mr. Cowing’s reputation inside the Beltway. That’s precisely why I had to respond to the accusations levied against this group. I just don’t see them as being constructive at all.

If standing up for what I think is right was enough to blow my chance to influence you, then I guess I’m going to have to live with that. I wish that you would instead focus on the content of our presentations and discuss with me and others the ideas and projects we’re getting started.

My contact information is freely available on this site. I can understand the reluctance of a staffer to openly discuss issues on a blog. When I was an intel officer in DC, I stayed far away from these things.

If you’re interested in having such a discussion on matters of substance, I would be more than willing to take this private. Please do e-mail me at your convenience. I’d hate to miss out on an opportunity to expand our audience just because I had a spirited disagreement with someone you favor.

Its really easy to see this traffic anyway since NASA.gov, EOP, OMB, and Congressional IP addresses are widely known and very easy to detect through reverse DNS. As for adding zeros, sorry, but I don’t do that. Don’t need to.

i dig the passion that is coming through in these comments! but i’d really love to bring the discussion back to NASA and openness, and the substance of nick’s post — discussions back and forth on individuals might be more appropriate in a private forum… jessy

Keith and I are from the same generation, but the difference between us is that he once worked at NASA, while I’ve been out in heavy industry for the past 33 years.
But none of that really means anything…other than Keith actually knows the inside workings, and the politics of those workings that will lead you to seek a career at Pixar!

Keith is attempting, without much success, to help you of the next generation learn how to communicate, to get your points across.

Too much of what passes for “dialogue” today is nothing more than an argument…I use the current style of political debate as an example. 40 years ago, a “moonbat” might have been found in the comic strip “Dick Tracy”.

Another example is why I abandoned “NASASpaceflight.com”. I started a “what if” thread that was meant to see if people were thinking about options, and all I got were snarky missives berating me for daring to challenge a decision!

We graybeards will be leaving soon, after the STS program is completed. Then it will be yours to run as you see fit. A new system to learn how to use, complete with built-in heartbreaks. But make the best of it, learn from it, and improve it.

Tonight, I will challenge your generation as a group to do something radical, to design *on your own time and without NASA-purchased software*, the architecture that will truly be spacefaring.

I give you this paradigm: this year is the 250th anniversary of the City of Pittsburgh. Pittsburgh’s predecessor, Fort Pitt, was once a lonely outpost on a wild frontier. People came in wagons, and like Lewis and Clark, built boats for the journey westward.

Push the frontier! Make Project Prometheius happen! Build a “super Voyager” capable of at least 0.5C, and sent it to the nearest solar system that research shows may harbor Earthlike planets.

But don’t become us. Be better than us. We did the best we could with what we were given, but we spent the past 26 years riding into space in our parent’s ship.

Have a nice day