On July 20, 1969, the world watched in wonder as Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin walked on the Moon. Thirty years later, enthusiasm for space exploration seems to be at an all time low. Recently, a US Congressional committee proposed cutting almost $1-billion from NASA's budget -- at a time when the US economy is booming.

Space budgets are reduced not because agencies are doing a bad or unnecessary job, but because they can be reduced with few political consequences. For the most part, politicians follow the will of their constituents. If the public does not think space exploration is important, then neither will the politicians.

Thus, generating and maintaining public support is a crucial part of the strategy. Public interest in space must be shifted from immediate and short-lived feelings to a forward-looking concern for future generations. To achieve this goal, decision-makers, their advisors, the attentive public, and also the general public must be educated. Towards this end, four key aspects to educating the public about space exploration have been identified:

• Explain clearly the benefits of space exploration to the general public.
   
• Encourage the media to publicize successful missions to the same extent as unsuccessful ones.
   
• Educate the public on the risks of space exploration so that setbacks are more understandable.
   
• Bridge the gap between the elite image of the aerospace community and the general public.
  

The strategy is based on the concept of many focused missions that build on each other. Such a paradigm is also beneficial to enhancing public awareness by keeping space "visible" in the news. Ideally, newsworthy strategy milestones should be accomplished every two to four years, because this is the "attention horizon" of governmental and corporate decision-makers.

In addition, it would be desirable to conduct missions based in part on their public awareness value. While possibly controversial to the scientific community, such missions should be acceptable if other returns such as developing commercial potential in space exist. This is the rationale for the strategy's Lunar Rover Race, which is described in the next section. Some other new ideas for education and public awareness initiatives include:

• Local community "Adopt a Star" or "Adopt an Asteroid" programs.
   
• Corporate team-building activities at Space Camp.
   
• An "astronaut lottery" for eligible members of the public to be trained as astronauts and possibly fly aboard a Space Shuttle flight that has excess capacity.
   
• Invite governmental representatives to scientific, economic, and political conferences related to space.
   
• Offer at least one opportunity per year for a governmental policy maker or their designate to attend the Summer Session of the International Space University as a student.
   
• Coordinate global public awareness and educational initiatives through an international body like the United Nations Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space or the International Human Exploration Consultative Group (IHECG).
   
• Resume student experiments aboard the Space Shuttle and expand the program to include flight opportunities on the International Space Station.

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