Selling Artemis

Standard boilerplate disclaimer: not endorsement of the specific companies, products, and people just examples of disruptors to tell the story. opinion is my own not NASA. a slimmed down elevator pitch of what I passed around earlier this year.

The riskiest thing we can do is just maintain the status quo. - Bob Iger

We stand on the precipice of a new age of human exploration, but we need to shore up support in Congress, public and Executive branch to ensure we don’t end up anchored in LEO as a rudderless ship if the political winds tact again.

In Marketing the Moon, David Meerman Scott and Richard Jurek tell the story of one of the most successful marketing and public relations campaigns in history: the selling of the Apollo program.

Primed by science fiction, magazine articles, and appearances by Wernher von Braun on the “Tomorrowland” segments of the Disneyland prime time television show, Americans were a receptive audience for NASA's pioneering “brand journalism.” Scott and Jurek describe sophisticated efforts by NASA and its many contractors to market the facts about space travel—through press releases, bylined articles, lavishly detailed background materials, and fully produced radio and television features—rather than push an agenda.

Understanding the problem:

• Public Ambivalence - Let’s be honest the public support of space exploration is a small yet enthusiastic segment who understand why off the earth for the earth is important compared to all the problems here on earth while the general population would rather obsess over the latest celebrity rehab or reality tv
• Congressional Whiplash - Unfortunately congressional pork seems to be what drives the funding than legitimate embracing the goals of space exploration. That set goals without hard timelines and they don’t care if the milestones are missed as long as money flows to their districts
• Overall Lack of Buy-in - The common thread between both segments is the lack of understanding WHY and HOW for Human Space Exploration. Compared to robotic exploration HSF is more expensive and the return on that extra investment is lost on most.

The Pitch: Sell Artemis not with the usual NASA social media and traditional methods but new partnerships and alternative pipelines of reach

The general public View of Human Spaceflight:

SpaceX innovates while NASA powerpoints

Implications:

• The public sees SpaceX launching cargo and crew while SLS/Orion continues to be delayed
• While in reality this isn’t a competition seeing the private sector do more for less money has folks question the need for a big government agency

With all the problems at home why should we spend money on space

Implications:

• Lack of understanding on how much (little actually) NASA gets in the Federal Budget
• Lack of understanding of the Innovation and spinoffs that come from NASA as benefit

Proposed Deliverables:

Hour Long Tomorrowland type Series - These hour long segments help the public understand the plans for the next decade and beyond. Model it like the NatGeo “Mars” series which was a mix of interviews with scientist, policy makers, and others explaining the concepts of exploration as well as a recreation of the first mission to Mars. For our series focus on the Science (Why), the Tech (How) and the People (Who) involved in Artemis. The Mission aspects that are interspersed with the interviews could be live action or animated to highlight the proposed CLIPS precursor, Artemis III and then beyond with lunar base and Mars. Break it down to Robotic Precursor, First Boots and Moonbase and onward to Mars

Short byte digestible deep dive into those Concepts - Expand the topics of Tomorrowland but in alternate distribution avenues. These take the high level concepts covered in the Tomorrowland series, but expand them into multiple ~10 minute shorts on the various topics to further explain the missions, people and plans of Artemis:

• Tech - partner with someone like MKBHD to cover the Tech and the HOW we will perform Artemis. 
• Science - Partner with someone like Neil Degrasse Tyson and his Cosmos Program to cover the Science and WHY we are doing Artemis
• People - Partner with someone like Annie Leibovitz to humanize the WHO (not just the astronauts, but NASA and commercial partners) building, training and flying the missions. Much like Life Magazine did back in Apollo

Educational Comics - Putting in the hands of kids in school a multi issue series on Artemis program and timeline. A partnership with a rebel like Todd Mcfarlane and his Image Comics could produce a visually stunning tale of exploration to distill the concepts for school level to inspire the Artemis Generation. The multi issue series covers the topics of the tech, science and people of the program in a unique storytelling method. Could be three 4 issue Pods to cover the Precursor Era, First Boots Adventure and then the Long Term Moonbase and onward to Mars. This is similar to the Apollo era comics distributed to schools. Inspire the Artemis Generation 

Document the Journey to the Moon in Immersive way - Cinematic 360 3D VR for the Artemis III crew documenting their journey from selection to training, to mission all the way through the ticker tape parade. Artemis’ first female steps at the South Pole of the Moon requires something more than 4k color 2D video (that is so 1969) Need to bring the public along in an immersive way to make them part of the mission. That journey starts long before the historic descent down the ladder. It starts at Crew selection announcement and goes all the way through the ticker tape parade. It will be a mixed of training, astronaut logs/interviews, visits to the commercial vendors to see lander progress as well as livestreams from key moments of the mission. Builds on the partnership that has delivered two Space Explores seasons: 

• Space Explorers: Season 1 (Trailer)
• Two 20 minute episodes released May and July 2018 exclusive to Oculus VR platforms
• A Terrestrial Cinematic Story of NASA’s Exploration Plans told by astronauts and cosmonauts with NASA technology at NASA locations
• Accolades: Webby Award 2019, Daytime Emmy Nomination 2019
• Space Explorers: ISS Experience (Trailer)
• Currently filming aboard the ISS since January 2019
• A mix of Astronaut logs, Experiments, Maintenance and other life aboard the space station moments. Leading up to filming an EVA in 2021. First Episode has been released on multi platforms (VR, 5G mobile, 2D museum experience)

Death comes to all But great achievements build a monument which shall endure until the sun grows cold. -George Fabricius 

If we disrupt how we make our case for exploration we can ensure robust support to achieve the mission goals for the next decade and beyond. In Partnership we can leverage the creative disruptors to tell the stories by providing our unique access.