"TAKING THE DREAM PUBLIC"
John Hanks
John Hanks Communications
www.johnhanks.com

Abstract

The concept of space travel has been The Dream of humankind since the beginning of time. This passion has driven the invention of machines to lift us off the surface of planet earth and make our way to the stars. From ancient mythological creatures and devices to today's International Space Station and interplanetary probes, engineers, mechanics and other visionaries have joined together to make The Dream come true step by bold step. All along the way, the spectating public has been excited and often moved to tears as the stunning developments unfold. The miracle of flight mystifies and captivates all who venture to experience or explain it. Wilbur Wright once described the experience of flying as a largely technical exercise riddled with the fragile mechanics of taking off, climbing, trimming, cruising, turning and navigating. Only during those brief moments of level flight, when the work was momentarily done, could one afford to glance about and take in the wonder of it all. Then it was back to the mechanics of cheating death once again by descending, re-trimming, and landing. Most of the players in this breathtaking technological evolution have recognized the importance of public opinion, but some have not. Where public opinion has been eschewed, trouble and difficulty have followed. Where it has been embraced, excitement and progress have ensued. This presentation will review the role of public relations in the evolution of flight, space travel and Lunar settlement, past, present and future.

The Past

From the beginning, both the American and Soviet space programs have recognized the importance of positive public opinion and support. They have always committed significant resources to public relations and imaging to create what we know as "Space."

All of you here either took part in it or have read about it. Many of you were there, along with me, Homer Hickam, and millions of other "Rocket Kids," watching Sputnik and Gagarin, Shepherd and Glenn, Grissom, White, and Chaffee, and at long last, Collins, Aldrin and Armstrong.

Then when Jack Schmitt stepped off the Moon's surface for the last time on the last Apollo, 17, we knew he would not be the last, but only the latest, human visitor to our closest natural satellite.

But then, as you all well know, as the space program moved forward, however slowly, they dropped the Moon from the agenda like a boring date taken home early.

The Present

Today there has been an awakening of that latent passion for space that is accelerating The Dream, most recently due to Dennis Tito's flight. Increasing attention has been focused on so-called "space tourism." And while tourism is what captures the public's fancy, there is a massive infrastructure of diversified industry that has been on many drawing boards for decades anxious to be realized, as we are seeing here in the City of Dreams.

I say it's time the public was made aware of the opportunities that exist and how they will benefit.

We are surrounded here today by visionary plans and technical marvels that rival the very beginning of flight itself. We're here to show the world how we can return to the Moon - this time to stay. But you know what? We're not telling the world. Once again, we're just telling each other.

Who outside our circle believes what we're doing is achievable? Who believes we should actually do it? Who even knows what we're doing? You may have seen a few reporters around this morning and may see a few more by the end of the symposium. They are here because they were notified and invited...in some cases pestered. The coverage that will follow the symposium was generated by your hosts.

How many of you put out a press release on your speeches? Few, if any, I would imagine. Like the Wright Brothers nearly a century ago, you are focused on your work and don't have the time, expertise, or the inclination to deal with the press.

From the book, Kill Devil Hill, authors Harry Combs and Martin Caidin describe the Wright Brothers:

"They were inventors, wholly self-reliant men who lived and worked in a world of scientific accuracy. Theirs were scientific minds concentrating more on work than conversation, and people connected with the press were a strange breed. To the brothers, telling a story or relating an event was simply a matter of presenting the facts in an honest fashion.

"A public relations executive once remarked to an aviation group that what the Wright brothers needed after their first flight was a good PR man - somebody who could handle the press, who could talk in terms understandable to the reporters, who understood the newspapers' special needs and knew how to guide and deliver accurate and comprehensible information."1

Only after years of courtroom wrangling and public displays were they able to solidify what should have been their obvious place in history. A good press release to begin with may have turned the course of history.

Forty years from the Wright Brothers, all of humanity had the opportunity to fly. Now, 40 years from the first human spaceflight, we common folk still trudge around in one "G", mostly forgetting to look heavenward where our dreams once were.

Let me tell you, if we don't find a way to tell the world…if we don't talk to more than just each other to dream our lofty dreams…we're going to wake up in another 40 years and wonder what we're wondering now -- Why hasn't it happened yet?

I have spent my entire career on one side or the other of the media. I can tell you that while there are some scoundrels out there with their own devious agendas, the vast majority of reporters are honest journalists trying to make a living, an impact, and maybe pick a Pulitzer Prize along the way. They can be our partners in telling our story.

How can that happen? By involving the PR people, who understand the media and their special needs and quirks. Let them keep the scoundrels away and open the door to public understanding and support - and VOTES -- without which no new dreamer's dream will ever become a reality.

We can have a private fleet of Suborbital vehicles. We can have the world's first public spacious station. And yes, we can have commercial mines, research centers, hotels and sports arenas on the Moon. But not without harnessing the unlimited power of public opinion. Science can tell the world what to do. We PR folks can tell the world why.

The private sector has proven in all other arenas it can do the job better, faster, cheaper and with more panache. Just look at what changes have come about because of wide acceptance of computers. Remember when they first came out? Who wanted one? Not too many. It wasn't until the business and PR world took over and the public realized how they could benefit that computers really took off.

Here's what we're up against. I was talking to a friend the other day, telling him about this Symposium. His reaction typifies far too many people's opinions. He said, "Why should we go to the Moon? We've been there and found nothing. Why should we waste time and money going back? Besides," he said, "We have too many problems on the earth: a deteriorating polluted environment, rampant poverty, and worldwide hunger. And it's too expensive! It's too dangerous!"

Sound familiar? We need to tell my friends and everyone like them…again and again…. the answers to those earth-bound problems may lie in getting a look at the earth from a distance. Maybe then it will open new ideas unthought of today.

The Future

What can do we DO about all this? Put simply, we need to turn up the volume! Start telling our story outside our own circles. Get your friends in the PR world involved. There are plenty of us who are "True Believers" willing, able and happy to rally to the cause, employ our skills and help you make the Dream happen. You'll get much more than you pay for when a "True Believer" is involved in telling your story to the public.

There are four things you can do. Number one is easy -- keep up the work. Keep the technology moving forward. Keep focused on that critical path. You can't sell a cake that hasn't been baked.

Second, crystallize your message. You can't tell the whole story at once. You need a good headline and a good executive summary. For example, for many of your projects, your message to the public could be: It is real. It is possible. It will benefit humanity. Whatever else you say, you always come back to the message.

Third, from the PR professionals you need to learn how to tell your story. It's not as simple as Wilbur and Orville thought. They thought you could just lay out the facts. But you can't stop there. You have to package those facts in a way the general public can understand. You have to learn the techniques of a good interview. You have to learn that a conversation with a reporter is not a conversation with a friend. Even our friends Leonard David from Space.com and Miles O'Brien from CNN will lose the message if you don't deliver it properly. You are talking through the reporter to your audience. Don't let the message get sidetracked.

For example, I teach in my media training that "If You Deny, You Die." I had a client who was building a new jail. He was asked by a TV reporter, "Can you guarantee this jail will be escape-proof?" His prepared message was: "We've only had 2 escapes in 9 years. This new jail will be better and safer than ever." But his answer to the reporter was, "Of course not. Noone can guarantee an escape-proof jail. These inmates are here 24/7 and they will find a way if they really want to. But we've only had 2 escapes…" and he went on with his message.

Guess what made the news. Right! "JAIL ADMINISTRATOR CAN'T GUARANTEE ESCAPE-PROOF JAIL" and only the first part of his answer.

A reporter asks you, "Isn't going to the a Moon a waste of time?" Your answer is NOT, "No, it's not a waste of time!" That bit of whining is all you'll see on the news. And you'll hate yourself for saying it. Your answer is, very calmly, "Going back to the Moon is real. It is possible. And it will benefit humanity" and then some appropriate embellishment. You'll be much happier with that and your audience will learn a lot more.

I mentioned audience. You need to know who your audience is. A PR professional can help you research, identify and reach that audience. Who is it that can be your best advocate? What are the publications that will run your story? If your thing is a remote-controlled Lunar Rover, Good Housekeeping may not be on your list.

Sadly but truly for most people, if it's not on the Evening News, it doesn't exist. You have to be on the Evening News, or in Aerospace Weekly, or Space.com and dozens of other media outlets, and you have to learn the methods to the madness that will get you there.

Fourth, after you've learned the secrets, you need to DO IT! You must make the time to give your PR person the information needed to deliver your message. And don't worry about repetition. Anything worth telling is worth repeating. You can't say it just once. As my wife repeatedly reminds me, a typical news viewer has to get the same story from three different sources to consider it legitimate. Even though you've said it a thousand times, it's the first time that new reporter or audience has heard it.

Take the time and expense to build a press kit…a package with summaries, graphics, contact information and other cool stuff that grounds your Dream in reality and gives the press something they can use.

Take the time for media tours on TV and radio, Opinion Editorials, appearances, interviews, feature articles, news conferences, events, and demonstrations. Build simulations and models and make them available to the press. The media, especially TV, love a good picture.

If you've already done some of that, good for you. If not, now's the time to start. If it sounds foreign to you, it should. It's not your area of expertise. You don't have time to set all that up. That's the job of those PR "True Believers."

NASA has shown little sentiment for seriously incenting commercial development of low earth orbit, to say nothing of their complete apathy toward returning to the Moon. That's where you come in. Through well-organized and executed PR strategies, together we can energize the majority of voters in this country to demand we go back to space and to the Moon.

What Congressman would not then vote for tax credits for commercial space developers, softer export restrictions and a simplified launch license process? What Congressman would hesitate to direct NASA to put Space and Lunar Commercialization at the top of the agenda?

In short, we need to make the world know what we know…that these plans are not the pipe dreams of burned-out space junkies…that they are real, they are possible and they will benefit humanity in ways unimaginable today. Like Mr. and Mrs. Aldrin, we want to create a buzz that just won't go away until we're back at the Sea of Tranquility...a mining shovel in one hand and a golf club in the other.

In 1927, Lucky Lindy, another reluctant hero who didn't care for the press but rode the tide, bridged the old world and the new, opening the way to a commercial goldmine. Now we stand on the threshold of a new bridge…between a new old world and a new new one, opening the way to another commercial bonanza.

You keep baking the cake. Crystallize your message. Learn the tricks of the media trade. Then DO IT!

If we are going to "Let the People Go," as Rick Tumlinson likes to say, we are going to have to convince several billion people that they can live The Dream, that the time is now to re-open their vision of space travel and Lunar settlement in our lifetime.

My friends, it's about Space; it's about the Moon. It's about Time!

IF NOT NOW…WHEN?
IF NOT US…WHO?

Thank you.

1. KILL DEVIL HILL, Discovering the Secret of the Wright Brothers, Harry Combs with Martin Caidin, Foreward (sic) by Neil Armstrong, Houghton Mifflin Company, Boston, p. 229

"Copyright © 2001 by The Space Frontier Foundation. All rights reserved."

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