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we could have a base on the moon within

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30 years reach mars in 50 years and

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explore the moons of the outer planets

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in 200 years

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by reach i mean with man or should i say

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person space flight

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we have already driven rovers on mars

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and landed a probe on titan a moon of

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saturn

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but if one is considering the future of

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the human race we have to go there

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ourselves

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going into space won't be cheap but it

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would take only a small proportion of

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world resources

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nasa's budget has remained roughly

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constant in real terms since the time of

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the apollo landings but it has decreased

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from 0.3 of usgdp in 1970

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to 0.12

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now

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even if we were to increase the

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international budget 20 times to make a

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serious effort to go into space it would

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only be a small fraction of world gdp

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there will be those who argue that it

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would be better to spend our money

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solving the problems of this planet like

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climate change and pollution rather than

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wasting it on a possibly fruitless

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search for a new planet

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i am not denying the importance of

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fighting climate change and global

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warming but we can do that and still

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spare a quarter of a percent of world

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gdp for space

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isn't our future worth a quarter of a

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percent

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we thought space was worth a big effort

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in the sixties

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in

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1962

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president kennedy committed the u.s to

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landing a man on the moon by the end of

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the decade

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this was achieved just in time by the

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apollo 11 mission in

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1969 the space race helped to create a

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fascination with science and led to

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great advances in technology including

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the first large-scale integrated

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circuits which are the basis of all

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modern computers

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however after the last moon landing in

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1972

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with no future plans for further manned

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space flight

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public interest in space declined this

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went along with the general dissentment

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with science in the west because

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although it had brought

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great benefits it had not solved the

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social problems that increasingly

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occupied public

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potencies a new manned space flight

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program would do a lot to restore public

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enthusiasm for space and for science

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generally

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robotic missions are much cheaper and

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may provide more scientific information

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but they don't catch the public

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imagination in the same way

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and they don't spread the human race

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into space which i'm arguing should be

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our long-term strategy

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a goal of a base on the moon by 2020 and

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of a man landing on mars by 2025

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would reignite the space program and

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give it a sense of purpose in the same

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way that president kennedy's moon

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targeted in the 1960s

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a new interest in space would also

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increase the public standing of science

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generally the low scheme in which

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science and scientists are held is

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having serious consequences

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we live in a society that is

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increasingly governed by science and

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technology yet fewer and fewer young

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people want to go into science

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as a small step towards curing this my

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daughter lucy and i have written a

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children's book

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i will now let lucy talk about how to

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encourage the next generation to take an

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interest in space and in science

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hello and good afternoon

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i'm very very honored to be here at the

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nasa 50th birthday lecture series it's a

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great honor to be here talking to you

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you've heard my father

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telling you about why we need to travel

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into space

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well i'd like to take just a few minutes

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to tell you why we think we need to have

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a next generation who wants to travel

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into space as well

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as my father said at the moment we face

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a paradox

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never before

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have science and technology played such

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a big part in our lives

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and yet at the same time it seems that

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children are turning away from science

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they're losing interest in science and

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they're not studying it

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so i'd like to talk a bit about what we

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learn from children what we learned

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about children in science education and

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how nasa makes a great contribution to

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ensuring that the next generation does

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engage with science

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last year

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my dad and i published a book for kids

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it's an adventure story in which all the

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adventures are based on real science

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it's about a little boy who lives next

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door to a scientist

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and this scientist has an amazing

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computer called cosmos and cosmos is so

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powerful and so intelligent he can draw

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a doorway

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through which you can walk to any part

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of the known universe that you want to

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visit

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now when i told some people at nasa

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about cosmos the fictional computer they

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said oh i wish we had one of them

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because that would help our budget

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enormously

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now

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my father wanted to work on this project

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because of his high level of concern

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about children and science education

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now that's

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not saying that we set out to persuade

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every child to be a scientist

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because our world needs people with a

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wide variety of skills

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but science affects all of us and it

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matters to all of us and it will do even

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more so in the future

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the children of today are the adults of

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tomorrow and they need to have a basic

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understanding of science

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if they're going to make the kind of

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decisions that will affect us all

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and we're going to need scientists as

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well not just

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to work on space travel

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but to work on issues that face us all

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like climate change or fuel sources or

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food production

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now

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some recent research has highlighted the

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fears about children and science

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education

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in the united kingdom a recent survey

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found

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that a third of uk school children

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believe that wartime prime minister

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winston churchill was the first man to

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walk on the moon

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i'm sorry about that

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nasa neil armstrong

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and though the statistics that came with

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this survey

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are not very heartening either

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they found that 40 percent of children

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thought mars was a chocolate bar

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35 percent of children said the earth

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was not an official planet

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and extraordinarily 72 percent could not

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identify the moon from pictures

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now just in case you're sitting there

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feeling smug i'm afraid the results in

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the usa are really not looking much

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only four percent

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of u.s adults when asked could name a

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living scientist

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who they would nominate as a science

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role model although at the same time 96

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are stunning 96 percent of u.s adults

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think that it is important for the us to

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be a leader in science education so it

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all sounds rather gloomy but

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there is hope

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as i found out when i went on a

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worldwide schools lecture tour with a

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talk called surfing the solar system

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it's about the sort of concept of

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astronomy and theoretical physics that

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we set out to cover in our book

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now i've probably spoken we estimate

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i've probably spoken to about 20 000

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kids worldwide and what i discovered was

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an enormous appetite and enthusiasm for

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science and we were asked so many

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questions that we have to write another

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book in order to be able to answer them

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and they're great questions like

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can you

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skateboard on jupiter

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and what my personal favorite is what

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does happen if you get to the edge of

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the universe

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now you could say that we're just lucky

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that we've got the rockstar end of

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science at our disposal

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and without a doubt i can tell you that

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black holes presented by stephen hawking

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explain simply for kids is a winner we

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had them we had them with us all the way

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but more seriously

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some research at universities in the uk

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shows that a significant percentage of

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students studying sciences and i mean

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across the board this isn't just physics

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report that their interest in science

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was sparked by exactly these topics

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they went on to become scientists

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because of an early interest in

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astronomy and the exotic phenomena of

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theoretical physics

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that space has the power to capture

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children's imagination and engage their

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curiosity there seems absolutely no