NASA is one of the world's most widely known organizations and yet since its "moon shot" zenith in 1969, it has struggled to secure funding and its ability to fire the global public's imagination has declined significantly (Tinlin, 2002). At issue for NASA today is an important domestic imperative: developing a marketing and public relations effort that will reach out to a new generation of Americans, seeking to inspire them to become more deeply interested in space exploration and its potential with the idea of leading toward increased public funding for the agency.
Reaching out to younger Americans in academic settings is an important focus for NASA today. NASA has already implemented the "@your library" campaign to use NASA research to excite children and adults about NASA and its activities through books and materials selected by librarians. This project included the development of a Web site, a traveling exhibit, and grants to six libraries that have served as program models. Through the project, NASA made program training and Web-based continuing education courses to librarians (NASA rockets forwarda, 2002).
As admirable as this effort is, it falls short of meeting NASA's need to promote the agency through coordinated education efforts which involve both students and teachers. The marketing campaign to be addressed therefore focuses upon enhancing NASA's outreach effort to this particular target population via NASA Explorers, NASA's Web-based educational program which has recently been expanded to include new space research topics on microgravity, the low gravity environment on spacecraft such as the Space Shuttle (NASA Exploresa, 2004).
What is recommended herein is the creation of a national NASA-centered science curriculum for use in grade K-12 in America's public school system. This program would follow suggestions offered by Paul Holmes (2003) who commented that NASA needs to focus more energy on...