Hey folks,

Like most of the rest of you, when I heard that Lance Bass had his eyes set on Alpha, I shook my head, groaned, smacked my forehead, and generally bemoned the state of early 21st-century culture. I have long considered the "Boy Band" phenomena (along with the Brittany-Aguillera clones) to be one of the most annoying, overhyped, facile, tacky, shameless, exploitive, and crass manifestations of anything that I've ever witnessed.

(Of course, I'm young -- 25 -- and haven't had time to witness very much. I'm also a music snob, with folks like Dvorak or Leonard Cohen on my regular rotation. When pressed, I might admit to being common enough to enjoy Pink Floyd, but back to the subject at hand...)

So, anyhow, when I found out that some talentless young punk -- and I don't often get to call people "young punk," mind you -- had a shot at going to space, I naturally became quite huffy and superior. But I've taken some time to reconsider my position, and have since decided that I was wrong.

I've been a space activist for 7 years now, and have always felt somewhat out of place at various space enthusiast/activist meetings, where I was almost invariably the youngest person in the room. It seemed to me that Space, as a general subject, had utterly failed to grab anyone's attention since the days of Gerald O'Neil. Except, somehow, for mine -- but then again, as mentioned above, I'm a freak. It has often been a melancholy experience, talking with the wonderful, still-enthusiastic old Apollo engineers -- for it has made me wonder: who will I talk with, when I am their age and they are dead -- who will carry the banner with me? What young whippersnappers will I be able to dole out my crusty anecdotes to?

Until the formation of the Mars Society, I could count the number of younger-than-me space enthusiasts that I'd met, not just on one hand, but on one finger. For any kind of Movement, this is a Very Bad Sign.

After the Mars Society formed, the situation improved dramatically. Say what you will about Zubrin's sometimes rabid populism -- the fact is that he has managed to excite a new generation of space enthusiasts, which was absolutely essential to the viability of the space movement as a whole. However, it has not gone nearly far enough.

To the average mid-to-late-teenaged kid -- in other words, to the principle driver of consumer culture these days -- space isn't just un-cool -- it's off the map entirely. It's not even something that crosses their minds at all. This is bad, for like it or not, "coolness" is what drives the entire pattern of consumer supply-and-demand in this culture. And the assignation of "coolness" begins at that age, and can continue as a powerful force for decades to come.

What if space -- REAL space, not Star Trek -- was cool? What if young children decided, once again, that they wanted to grow up to be an astronaut? What if sorority girls decided en masse that space-boys are just sooooooooooooooo hot? What if commercial footage from "Young Punks In Space" could be marketed at a profit? What if MTV included Space Exploration as a topic of concern in its "Rock the Vote" campaign? What if the average multi-pierced $200-Nike-wearing soon-to-be-voter could tell you the difference between chemical and nuclear thermal propulsion?

If space were cool, what would happen then?

While I'm all for the development of space tourism, space tourism, in and of itself, will not make space "cool". Nothing against them, but balding ex-engineers, South African dot-commers, and middle-aged Polish bankers wil just NOT do it.

And Lance Bass will.

So: I'd still rather put myself through a tree-shredder than listen to a full N'Synch album, but I'll be rooting for Lance Bass all the way.

Cheers,

Nathan.