Sociologist William S. Bainbridge, author of The Spaceflight Revolution and Goals in Space), needs input from space enthusiasts for his latest study. He is asking space blogs to post the following announcement about two apps available at Surveyor II (Android Apps).
Surveyor II: Space Futures:
We invite you to have a voice in defining the future of space exploration! Can you predict the future of space exploration, fifty years in the future? Our other online questionnaire, Space Opinions, asks people what the space program means to them today. This one, Space Futures, asks you to imagine the possibilities for tomorrow!
100 predictions about the future were drawn from earlier open-ended online surveys and NASA reports. Think forward FIFTY YEARS and decide how likely it is each one will actually happen during that period (on a scale of 1=very unlikely to 8=very likely), and how good it would be if it did (on a scale from 1=very bad to 8=very good). Send your judgments to us, and we will send you confidential feedback on how your own views compare with others. The combined results of this Space Futures survey and the Space Opinions survey will be published online very quickly to help guide leaders of the world’s space programs, governments, aerospace industries, and young people studying related areas of science and engineering.
This is not a random-sample public opinion survey, but a scientific questionnaire study designed to understand how a range of possibilities fit together in the minds of a variety of people. For example, statistical analysis can identify underlying values reflected in different future possibilities, and tell us how optimists and pessimists conceptualize the issues differently. It was designed by Dr. William Sims Bainbridge, a prominent social scientist who pioneered this approach in his book, Goals in Space, and in his textbook, Survey Research: A Computer-Assisted Introduction.
We invite you to think forward FIFTY YEARS, and have a voice in defining the future direction of space exploration.