GSFC Is Going To Film Its Own Reality TV Show

Well, Let's hope it is better than "NASA Edge: an inside and outside look at all things NASA"

Our table group in a Goddard leadership class I was in a couple years ago proposed something very similar to senior Center mgmt. It went nowhere at the time, but I wonder if someone filed it away for future reference....

I have to say that I prefer Ms. Ivins' idea for a documentary about CxP. From my studies of history, one of the reasons that Project Apollo had such a lot of public support was the effort the (photogenic and charismatic) Werner von Braun made in public outreach through allies in Disney Studios. At the price of a significant cut of NASA's public relations budget, a prime-time network show about the dream of space exploration and the plans for the future could generate sufficient public interest to put the manned spaceflight program an important part of the mainstream political agenda.

The most important thing is not to stick at just LEO and return to the Moon. Include speculative stuff about the moon base, going to Mars and beyond. Talk about NASA's top-of-the-line equipment (actual and proposed), stuff like Project Prometheus and the nuclear-electric ion drive. Create excitement by showing that we really do have the tools to make the dream work, all we need is the funding.

All that is needed is a sufficiently articulate, knowledgable and charismatic person to act as host. Applications from personnel at JSC, MSFC, KSC and all other NASA centres welcomed.

There must be at least a dozen companies that can do this. Surely GSFC was more forthcoming about the exact reasons that made MPT the only choice– the comment that MPT has experience working with government agencies really caught my eye, as if NASA were something so very special it takes nothing less than– oh, heck! I forgot! they ARE so very special!

This doesn't surprise me at all. I've always had the nickname here "Comedy Central" for Goddard

Maybe they could name the film "Return to Oz", with Ms Ivins playing the part of the Wicked Witch. JSC folks will certify her qualifications.

Dude! I work at GSFC, have some acting experience, and would love to be a part of this! Anyone know how?

With the popularity of "Survivor", I often wondered why someone with imagination didn't try to create a Red Team-Blue Team type of TV show by paying to use NASA facilities. The two teams, consisting of seven people each, would undergo the same training as astronauts currently undergo while preparing for a mission.
It would include team members' efforts to get in shape to pass the physical exams, and if done correctly, would be as funny as those scenes from "Space Cowboys" and "Armageddon" were!

The problem would be one of trying to find times when the simulators and NBF are unused by real astronauts training for future missions. Even though the show's producers would be paying NASA for the use of their facilities, an ideal situation to bring in more money to fund the agency, there's just no way to squeeze it in.

However, after the final STS mission has launched, the sims will be pretty empty for several years, and perhaps this use would be better than mothballing them, or even destroying them.

Cancelled, eh? Well, that's not a great surprise. Most reality shows rarely live up to their potential (or hype), so this is probably actually a good thing. I guess that NASA plans to use its PR dollars elsewhere.

I still like the idea of a documentary about NASA, past, present and future. I maintain that getting the dream into the public eye is the first step to rebuilding the support base NASA needs to expand its operations both in scale and reach.

I'd take it a step further and launch the winner of the competition into space as a payload specialist on a shuttle mission. That would -really- generate some public interest!

Another great example of too many Astronauts with nothing to do. Could you imagine Buzz Aldrin or Alan Shepard approaching Paramount Pictures about similar proposals while they were active or management Astronauts. This is a prime example of why NASA is in the position its in now. Does Ivins not have enough work as the head of the Constellation Branch for the Astronaut Office? It would be very nice to have a job pimping NASA to network television when you should be focused on future missions. Doesn’t NASA have a Public Affairs Office responsible for promoting NASA? Lets get to work Ivins and maybe we can get back to the moon and mars. Network television will take care itself; its not your job. This is ridiculous.