What does public thinks about space? The main findings of public's approach to the manned Moon and Mars missions and their implications to human space exploration
- Paper number
IAC-17,B3,9-GTS.2,x40298
- Year
2017
- Abstract
{\bf Introduction}: A lot have already been said about human space exploration by experts in scientific community, although not much is known about what public thinks about and what knowledge has about space exploration. What are the attitudes to the future human spaceflights such as future Moon exploration, or mission to Mars? How much does it differ among people? What implication may public’s approach have to the future manned space missions? The Lunar questionnaire was design with an aim to understand how public react to the future manned space missions to the Moon and Mars. {\bf Methods}: Several hypotheses were stated. Over 200 people from more than 30 different countries filled the online questionnaire. Respondents were chosen randomly based on self-selection sampling mostly through social media. Age of the sample varied from 16 to 68 years with median 27 years. Educational level of respondents warried from undergraduate to professors. Questions were designed to asked topics such as: attitudes to the Moon and space exploration, importance of human space exploration, the main risks, and benefits of living on the Moon, astronaut selection etc. The gained answers were analyzed by statistical methods, and content analysis. {\bf Discussion and conclusion}: Significant outputs were found and discussed. Correlation analysis of certain items was conducted to verify stated hypotheses. Possible implications were pointed out and discussed.- Abstract document
- Manuscript document
(absent)