I think that the vast library of photographs, imagery, films, and video built up over the last half-century is our greatest asset when it comes to sparking an interest in space. Much of the material is simply beautiful, and people respond to it. Images such as the Earth from Apollo 17 have become iconic symbols rich with meaning to most people. Catch the eye of the public with the pretty pictures, and you have the opportunity to tell them the story behind the pictures.

There's some recognition out there of the value of the archives and their power over the public, but it so far hasn't produced any results. A few years back NASA made a big show of contracting with a Hollywood consortium to digitize the NASA archives and make them available to the public on the Net, and the strategy had one eye on public relations and public outreach...but it never went anywhere, and the consortium's vanished without a trace. I thought it was a great idea and the business case was pretty solid, and I suspect that problem may have been internal to the partners and not an actual failure in the marketplace (you can't fail in the marketplace if you never try).