A NASA program designed to raise the government agency’s public profile is going sci-fi: the space agency has announced an upcoming series of NASA-branded science fiction novels. The space agency is planning to team their engineers and scientists with science fiction writers at Tor Books for the new series.
The series, which will consist of an undisclosed number of hard science fiction tales, will hit bookstores in 2012 and promises to offer readers “NASA-inspired” works of fiction.
NASA’s decision to branch out into science fiction was handled by the agency’s Chief Technologist Office (CTO), which (among other things) is tasked with building public-private partnerships of all sorts.
The CTO serves as NASA’s go-to office for private sector outreach, which includes everything from commercial spaceflight to licensing NASA technology and loaning NASA scientists to outside labs.
The authors Tor will be assigning to the series are slotted to participate in a two-day workshop at the Goddard Space Flight Center that will include meetings with NASA scientists, access to project data and ongoing consultations and advice from NASA afterwards.
While readers of all ages read science fiction, it’s no secret that a healthy percentage of the audience for science fiction novels are young people who have not chosen a career yet. The NASA books, which will feature scientists and engineers in heroic roles, are intended to encourage students to consider careers in the sciences.
The agency noted that science fiction has historically inspired many scientists to choose the career path that they did, and that its own initiative is an effort to inspire future generations.
“NASA’s goal is to attract and retain students focused on STEM studies, strengthening the agency and the nation’s future workforce,” the agency said in a press statement.
Releasing a series of NASA-branded science fiction novels is consistent with the agency’s long history with the media. Despite the space agency’s headaches over the past decade, NASA has sent in-house experts onto television programs and documentaries for years. In the 1960s, NASA’s influence helped popularize the phrase ‘a-okay’ and the Apollo program resulted in enduring partnerships with television and radio networks.
Encouraging more young people to pursue scientific careers is a wonderful idea. Despite the rise of “geek culture” and the internet, the United States is falling behind other countries in terms of the pace at which we are graduating students with degrees in science and engineering.
If NASA’s books help encourage the next generation of geeks, that can only be a good thing.
