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NASA Trailer To Be Shown Before Star Trek: Into Darkness

Tired of seeing ads for cars and soda before the films you watch at the theater? Well, a successful crowdfunding campaign at Indiegogo will see a trimmed down version of NASA's 'We Are Explorers' video aired before showings of the upcoming Star Trek: Into Darkness in theaters all over the country. "Most people recognize space as a key expression of our character. They know our space programs as a globally recognized brand of ingenuity. The recently landed Mars Curiosity Rover was the latest reminder that space systems are the crown jewels of our scientific and technical prowess. Less known is the indispensable value space systems bring to our everyday lives. Space provides irreplaceable capabilities for defense, public health, finance, medicine, energy, agriculture, transportation, development and countless other fields. Investments in space programs are precisely about improving and protecting life on Earth. ... By funding this campaign, we can remind students and the general public that our nation's space agency is working hard on the next era of exploration." The campaign's funding goal was reached in just six days — their stretch goal will increase the number of theaters for the clip from 59 screens to 750. The movie comes out on May 17th.

30 of 158 comments (clear)

  1. Good by RobbieCrash · · Score: 5, Informative

    Wider exposure to science cannot be a bad thing.

    --
    Keep on knockin'
    https://robbiecrash.me
    1. Re:Good by asm2750 · · Score: 2

      Once SpaceX, Orbital, et al. land a manned and privately funded ship on the moon I will say it's real progress. Right now we are still stuck with human LEO.

    2. Re:Good by Runaway1956 · · Score: 2

      Yeah. You make some sense. But, poetry is motivational too.

      Go out, crank up your motorcycle, crank up some tunes, and hit the highway. Rumble out across the badlands, with "Highway to the Danger Zone" booming in your ears. Try it.

      I'm no poet, but poetry is indeed motivational. If it isn't, then you probably have no soul.

      --
      "Windows is like the faint smell of piss in a subway: it's there, and there's nothing you can do about it." - Charlie Br
    3. Re:Good by Teancum · · Score: 4, Interesting

      I guess you've never heard of Golden Spike Company or Inspiration Mars? The first is a private effort to land people on the Moon, and the second one is trying to organize a private spaceflight attempt to send people to Mars. Both plan on having this happen in this decade (meaning some time before the year 2020).

      You can debate if either of these companies, or the numerous space prospecting companies that are starting to show up will be successful at getting things done in space, but they are trying to kick the door down and make some real progress by sending people and spacecraft well beyond LEO.

      We will be stuck in the Solar System for quite some time as interstellar travel is quite beyond our capability (the Voyager spacecraft not withstanding.... and they won't get near another star within human lifetimes, much less the lifetimes of any current human civilization). The Solar System is a big place though with literally thousands of worlds to explore and enough raw materials to expand human civilization several orders of magnitude in terms of population.... and to do that with style and comfort.

      The big goal of private spaceflight at the moment is to cut the cost of getting up there to at least make the fuel being used to get there as a major cost component. Several companies are making some significant progress in doing that.

    4. Re:Good by jedidiah · · Score: 2

      A Ferengi is far less likely to invest in basic research. We still need an agency that will develop the technologies that corporations will reuse. There is unprofitable work to be done before things can be handed over to the likes of Mosk. That is what NASA has done for 50 years and the new corporate space ventures are the dividend of very old investments.

      The shoulders of giants.

      --
      A Pirate and a Puritan look the same on a balance sheet.
    5. Re:Good by kermidge · · Score: 2

      @teancum - SpaceX has a man-rated rocket? Capsule? I thought not yet, but working on it.

      Seems to me the progression for commercial interests is:
      get there (LEO, Moon, asteroids and/or Mars;
      find and expand ways to make money at it;
      low-level continued exploration for resources in those areas;
      later explore and exploit stuff further out - moons of Jupiter and Saturn;

      and in all or most all cases/areas they will be in the footprints of government exploration efforts. That's for near-term, next 100 years and more, barring gee-whiz magical discoveries in physics and consequent engineering. Or the Singularity. [grin]

    6. Re:Good by khallow · · Score: 2

      I'd love to be wrong about this

      How about developing a new line of orbital launch vehicles. which SpaceX did, for less than a factor of ten that NASA would have payed for it (at least in the initial contract, it'd go up with cost overruns)? Some NASA people examined SpaceX's accounting books and reached that particular conclusion. Exploration (and more important things like development) of space will be helped along by this new generation of cheap access to space.

      Don't you love being wrong?

  2. Preaching the choir? by Opportunist · · Score: 5, Funny

    It's not like you have to convince the average Star Trek fan that NASA should get some sensible funding.

    But given the quality of the more recent Star Trek movies, this might just be the best thing they'll see that evening.

    --
    We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
    1. Re:Preaching the choir? by Opportunist · · Score: 2, Informative

      Sorry. English is not my forte when I've been working for 20 hours straight. I should stick to French. Or German. Or Spanish.

      --
      We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
  3. Re:Bureacracy by dmbasso · · Score: 2

    The fundamental principle of Capitalism [...]

    Because we know how well it works with humans in command, right[U+2e2e]

    --
    `echo $[0x853204FA81]|tr 0-9 ionbsdeaml`@gmail.com
  4. Re:Bureacracy by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    bzzt wrong...nasa can't spend money on a commercial - this was funded by donations

  5. Re:Bureacracy by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

    Yes yes, damn the government. Too bad your far flung accusations have no basis in this case, as it's a crowdfunded campaign. But don't let facts get in the way of your derp. Wear it proudly.

  6. Re:Bureacracy by MightyMartian · · Score: 5, Informative

    1. It isn't your capital, it's the taxes that an elected legislature empowered by the Constitution collects.
    2. Don't wreck a perfectly good economic system with Libertarian nonsense.

    --
    The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
  7. Kinda ironic... by denzacar · · Score: 5, Funny

    The entire thing basically looks like the intro of Star Trek: Enterprise. Minus the singing.
    Also, practically minus the "future". All that trailer does is show things NASA "used to do".
    Making the ST: E intro far more inspirational.

    On the other hand, "We are explorers" is not really the motto that syncs with Jar Jar's Trek - which is about lens flares, explosions, running, shooting and apparently tits in space.
    Not that there's anything wrong with tits in space, it's just that when talking about "exploration of celestial spheres" our goal should be set a little farther than a pair of double Ds.

    --
    Mit der Dummheit kämpfen Götter selbst vergebens
    1. Re:Kinda ironic... by Runaway1956 · · Score: 3, Funny

      Tits in space? Hmmm. Interesting concept. Should I assume that we'll find human women attached to those tits? I don't know that whole mountains of disembodied tits would benefit man or mankind very much.

      --
      "Windows is like the faint smell of piss in a subway: it's there, and there's nothing you can do about it." - Charlie Br
  8. Target audience? by thatkid_2002 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    TFA cites younger people as being the target audience. As a young person who also happens to know quite a few other young people this seems strange. In general, young people tend to understand the importance of NASA and space programs in general - we all know all know the associated trivia such as where ballpoint pens and Teflon came from. We all know the importance of science - we are all (unless you are in the Bible Belt of the USA) taught it in school and we are all aware of what science can do for us.

    It seems to me that the people who actually need to be targeted are the middle aged and older people who are in control of the votes and money needed to revitalise the space programs. Luckily, there is some penetration of Star Trek into these age groups.

    1. Re:Target audience? by Rogerborg · · Score: 2

      Yes, "that whole age bracket" agrees with you, which is why the Historical Documents marked the beginning and end of the franchise, and it died alone, unloved and unremembered, inspiring nothing and no-one.

      --
      If you were blocking sigs, you wouldn't have to read this.
    2. Re:Target audience? by Black+Parrot · · Score: 3, Insightful

      TOS was terrible. I know I'm going to get hate for saying that, but it's truly unbearable crap. No-wonder that whole age bracket has an aversion to science.

      Yeah, it should have been sophisticated, like today's television shows.

      --
      Sheesh, evil *and* a jerk. -- Jade
  9. Re:Bureacracy by Black+Parrot · · Score: 2

    Yeah, 'cause capitalists never screw up.

    Or screw us.

    --
    Sheesh, evil *and* a jerk. -- Jade
  10. Re:Surely nobody will go see the movie anyway by Black+Parrot · · Score: 2

    That's exactly how I felt about it: It was a modestly interesting SF movie, but it wasn't Star Trek.

    --
    Sheesh, evil *and* a jerk. -- Jade
  11. This is awesome BUT by brunes69 · · Score: 5, Interesting

    .. I wish there was a "This video was funded by public donations" under the NASA ad at the end. I can see a lot of people in the theatre being needlessly jaded by the idea that their tax dollars were spent advertising a government agency, when that isn't the case here.

  12. Awesome trailer... by Lumpy · · Score: 3

    Problem is War is more profitable and more desirable to human kind. We prefer to kill each other in the name of god, peace, and love.

    --
    Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
  13. Please build more telescopes than spaceships by WaffleMonster · · Score: 3, Insightful

    What excites me more than shuttle missions are satellites and probes NASA has been sending out all these years.

    MRO and to a lesser extent MSL are worth 20 round trip human mars missions as far as I'm concerned. New telescopes like JWST are likely to be as priceless as HST and WMAP have proven to be.

    It is simply cheaper and more productive to push technology without having to worry about earthly things like human safety.

    My only problem with the video other than being slightly cheezy is the video is all rockets and no science.

    1. Re:Please build more telescopes than spaceships by TheTurtlesMoves · · Score: 2

      Its using the right tool for the job.

      The problem with NASA is that its a relic of the cold war. There is this manned mission thing that quite frankly is a waste of money. It does *not* even achieve anything that the space enthusiasts want. It has awful return on investment and stops the entire space program for years every time something goes wrong.

      Some push manned missions because of inspiration and exploration spirit.. Shesh for the billions it costs you can make a lot of full length movies and release them for free.

      Some claim you get more science done. This is odd since there is no scientific basis to such a claim. Lets not forget that probes, drones and robotic labs don't take people out of the loop, just out of hostile unlivable environments. In fact the apollo mission had crap return on investment, even for the technology of the time. That kind of mass budget could have really got a lot done, and since its not all life support system, probably been cheaper as well.

      And if it is the science that is suppose to be the reason, then the current unmanned missions that are a fraction of the price of the ISS should already be inspiring everyone that give a crap? What does adding some dude with flag change?

      --
      The Grey Goo disaster happened 3 billion years ago. This rock is covered in self replicating machines!
    2. Re:Please build more telescopes than spaceships by Teancum · · Score: 2

      In defense of NASA (and I'm a huge NASA critic), they seem to do better than most other government agencies in terms of returning value for tax dollars spent. At the very least the manned spaceflight missions provided some amazing entertainment and thousands of hours of programming for the major television networks at modest prices that would be comparable to Hollywood budgets.

      I think using the "scientific inquiry" argument is about as lame as it gets and that doesn't even remotely touch what NASA actually accomplished.

      The manned spaceflight program in particular has almost nothing to do with science, and that is mostly an afterthought. That is especially telling as the first scientist to go to the Moon was also the last one in the 20th Century to step onto the lunar surface. What you might say is that Apollo was an exercise in stretching engineering limits and pushing boundaries to see what could be done. That is what you get when you do things that have never been done before.

      As for what NASA is currently doing, in particular the James Webb Space Telescope and the "Senate Launch System" that are currently in development, they are boldly going where thousands have gone before. I really don't see anything they are currently doing which even comes close to the boundary pushing NASA was doing in the 1960's when things were really happening. Almost all of that is now happening in private commercial spaceflight endeavors who are starting to get into space and get things done with NASA begging to come along for the ride.

  14. Wrong movie by LordNimon · · Score: 2

    What's the point of showing a NASA promotional video before a Star Trek movie? Everyone who watches that movie is already a fan of space exploration. The video should be shown in front of something completely different, like The Great Gatsby.

    I would have sponsored the funding campaign on Indiegogo if that had been their goal. Instead, it's just preaching to the choir. What a waste.

    --
    And the men who hold high places must be the ones who start
    To mold a new reality... closer to the heart
  15. Re:Surely nobody will go see the movie anyway by TheTurtlesMoves · · Score: 2

    Yea, it was a lot better than the old one.

    --
    The Grey Goo disaster happened 3 billion years ago. This rock is covered in self replicating machines!
  16. Re:Bureacracy by Blue+Stone · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Speaking as a non-American, NASA is one of the few things I find myself admiring about the USA, and certainly one of the most worthy.

    Your government clearly underestimates the high esteem in which NASA is held around the world, otherwise it would fund the bejesus out of it.

    --
    Corporation, n. An ingenious device for obtaining individual profit without individual responsibility. - Ambrose Bierce
  17. Re:Surely nobody will go see the movie anyway by jedidiah · · Score: 2

    That is the nature of any inter-generational story. Some fanboy will always whine that the newest incarnation is not a true Scotsman.

    It doesn't matter if it's Dickens or Batman.

    --
    A Pirate and a Puritan look the same on a balance sheet.
  18. Could have been a lot more convincing if... by heteromonomer · · Score: 2

    In my opinion it could have been far more convincing. It is not just an "optional" desire to explore the reason we should fund NASA. It is the moral and logical imperative in order to survive as species. For the survival of intelligent species on earth. Larry Niven's line comes to mind: The dinosaurs are extinct because they did not have a space program. We need more telescopes around the earth and Venus to look for incoming small and large objects that can hit earth. And then we need to devise ways to intercept and avoid them. This argument does not make space exploration an optional luxury, but a critical necessity.