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Ad
Astra
Volume 14, Number 5 September/October 2002
Lifting Off
Diversity gets us there sooner!
By Christopher M. Pancratz, NSS Vice President of Public Affairs & Chairman,
Executive Committee
One thing that has impressed me since
I first became involved with the National Space Society has been the diverse
makeup of the membership. As the product of an early merger of the National
Space Institute and the L5 Society, NSS has enjoyed the melding of two distinct
cultures. NSI’s original membership included space professionals, engineers
and scientists from government and industry while the ranks of the The L5 Society
were filled with activists from academia and other segments.
Today, the membership of NSS includes those professional and activists, along
with enthusiasts from many walks of life. In addition to astronauts, scientists,
and engineers, we have business people from established aerospace companies
and entrepreneurs, writers and entertainers, healthcare professionals, educators,
insurance agents and lawyers. All of these varied people bring different perspectives
and approaches to our mission of promoting change. Their primary interest may
be a return to the moon, missions to Mars, planetary defense, asteroid mining,
space tourism, commercialization, rocketry, closed system life support, property
rights or the effects of weightlessness on the human body. Yet, they share one
vision—human settlement—people living and working in thriving communities
beyond the Earth.
But we are not diverse enough!
We need to work harder in our own communities to recruit, not only the people
that are like us in background and interests, but also those who are different
and seemingly under- represented in our membership. For starters, we need many
more women and students and people of varied ethnic backgrounds.
Our membership needs to include people from all regions and all occupations.
Farmers, transportation workers, civil servants and teachers have an equally
big a stake in the vital movement of humanity into space. We need to find ways
to recruit and welcome them to our Society.
But even that will not be enough! Our Vision is a planetary goal, not just for
the United States, North America or for the English-speaking world. We need
to enlist and involve people from everywhere on the planet. NSS currently has
chapters in Australia, Canada, Germany, Ireland and Mexico in addition to the
United States. Other space faring nations need to be represented—Russia,
Europe, Japan and China. We have members in other countries that have shown
some commitment of resources to space, like Brazil and India. We need to find
ways to expand our Mission to reach people around the globe. Each new member,
each new voice, each new perspective forwards the day when our vision will be
reality.
Please let me know what you are doing in your community and what ideas you have
to further diversify our Society—email me at NSSPublicAffairs@aol.com.
Ad Astra!