If the smart people at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration can figure out how to tell potential far-off alien civilizations about Earth --- and they did, by placing golden data disks the Voyager deep-space probes --- then they can certainly find a way to fire the imaginations of potential young explorers without using any of its own budget, as prohibited by law.
It looks like the NASA folks have figured that out too, with a plan to hitch a ride with the Starship Enterprise, as it were, as it warps through U.S. theaters in "Star Trek Into Darkness," the second installment of director J.J. Abrams' retelling of the "Trek" story.
The space agency has posted a self-promotional video on project funding incubator website indiegogo.com, where people can go and pledge money towards the $33,000 NASA says it will take to pare the video down to a 30-second trailer, which will then run in some of the country's top markets during showings of "Star Trek Into Darkness."
Intended to provide viewers a brief showcase of NASA's accomplishments and a taste of space adventures still to come, "We are the Explorers" is narrated by Peter Cullen, the voice of Optimus Prime in the "Transformers" films.
By backing the trailer project, "you can show our students and young people that we're in an exciting new era of space exploration," NASA tells potential funders through a message posted on the site. "Now is the time to reach them - to remind them that an inspiring space program awaits, one that is worthy of their ambition."
NASA says the spot will run in over 50 movie theater screens for 8 weeks, starting May 17, when "Star Trek Into Darkness" goes to wide-release in the U.S.
The space agency explains on the site that the opportunity it has to place the triler with "Star trek" screenings is "a direct ad-buy. If we reach our goal, we're in.
Then, if donors raise more than the initial funding request, the added money will be used to purchase additional time at more theaters across the nation, NASA said.
"Most people recognize space as a key expression of our character. They know our space programs as a globally recognized brand of ingenuity," reads NASA's statement on the idiegogo website.
But, "many wrongly assume that the space program is flush with cash," NASA continues. In reality, "the total funds committed for NASA by the U.S. government each year make up a negligible fraction of the entire federal budget...eliminating the NASA budget would not appreciably reduce yearly deficit spending or the national debt in any way. It would however, decimate economic innovation and ground-breaking science."
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