The International Space Station Benefits for Humanity publication and associated website are part of the communications tools NASA uses to share benefits from space station research with humanity. (NASA)
The other thing to consider is that the International Space Station took a significant investment, and, much like the investments made in science in other areas, our public doesn’t understand how it helps their daily lives. If you ask people how the National Science Foundation helps their daily life, they can’t tell you. It’s the same if you ask about the space station; most can’t tell you how they benefit from our research. As scientists, we all have this same communication problem. With the space station, we’re trying to help connect the dots between the research we’re doing and how this can help make people’s lives better.
There are challenges to this. It takes time for those applications to develop; yet powerful applications have been made: cleaning the air in a daycare so kids aren’t as likely to transfer illness and research on astronaut bone loss are just two examples. The results from our bone loss studies are surprising researchers on Earth. There’s a lot of synergy, and there are some things we can study better on the space station in a microgravity environment. The results from space coupled with those from experiments on Earth benefit humanity in many ways.
It’s up to us, the scientists, to continue to challenge ourselves to share this work with the public in new and dynamic ways, to communicate the importance of this research and its outcomes. We can’t promise the application of a specific result, but we can promise our work will help our nation stay on the competitive edge. We shouldn’t oversell—but we also shouldn’t sell our science short.
The other thing to consider is that the International Space Station took a significant investment, and, much like the investments made in science in other areas, our public doesn’t understand how it helps their daily lives. If you ask people how the National Science Foundation helps their daily life, they can’t tell you. It’s the same if you ask about the space station; most can’t tell you how they benefit from our research. As scientists, we all have this same communication problem. With the space station, we’re trying to help connect the dots between the research we’re doing and how this can help make people’s lives better.
There are challenges to this. It takes time for those applications to develop; yet powerful applications have been made: cleaning the air in a daycare so kids aren’t as likely to transfer illness and research on astronaut bone loss are just two examples. The results from our bone loss studies are surprising researchers on Earth. There’s a lot of synergy, and there are some things we can study better on the space station in a microgravity environment. The results from space coupled with those from experiments on Earth benefit humanity in many ways.
It’s up to us, the scientists, to continue to challenge ourselves to share this work with the public in new and dynamic ways, to communicate the importance of this research and its outcomes. We can’t promise the application of a specific result, but we can promise our work will help our nation stay on the competitive edge. We shouldn’t oversell—but we also shouldn’t sell our science short.
Julie A. Robinson, Ph.D.
International Space Station Program Scientist
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