NASA could use a better slogan. Got one?

Space adventuress and newly-minted superblogger Loretta Hidalgo Whitesides (of Yuri's Night and Space Generation) wants to know if you can come up with a better slogan for NASA:

In early August, NASA internally released its latest marketing campaign, designed to show its relevance and value to the American people. Its new slogan? "NASA explores for answers that power our future." The campaign now seems to be aborted, but it did get me thinking, could we do any better? I am no marketing genius, but I think that we could. I mean North Face's has much more zing, "Never Stop Exploring." Even Dow Chemicals did better, "The Human Element."

Now, I know that NASA does not have the massive budget that these companies do to hire super star advertising execs. I also know that a lot of people at NASA put a lot of time and thought into this new campaign and so I don't want to criticize it without offering up some constructive alternatives. Therefore, I am turning to cyberspace and the power of crowdsourcing to come up with some alternatives to offer them. One of the issues they cite in their market research is a challenge being relevant to people 18-24. Maybe we could help. I will even throw in prizes.

The writer of the best slogan will get a DVD of the space movie of their choice, From the Earth to the Moon, Star Wars, Battlestar Galactica, etc and will be interviewed for a follow up posting on what it takes to engage the public with space. Other noteworthy submission will get other small space swag.

Link to the full text of Loretta's call to keyboards, and submissions should are due by Sept 28th. The Wired folks have created a new submissions tool, so go ahead and use that to plug in your ideas: Link

• [Anonymous]

  Hell, you don’t even have to change it all that much to make it sound markedly better, something along the lines of “NASA: Exploring for Answers to Power Our Future”

• [x00x]

  Stagecoach to the Stars

• [Anonymous]

  Astronaut’s Get It Done

• [Flying Squid]

  “Once the rockets go up, who cares where they come down? That’s not my department.”

  Oh wait, I think that one has already been used.

• [x00x]

  Stagecoach to the Stars

• [Gilbert Wham]

  I can’t take credit, I think it’s Allen Steele’s:

  Never
  A
  Straight
  Answer

  “Is not so grt, aktully” FTW, though…

• [Halloween Jack]

  “The Closest Thing You’ve Got to Starfleet”.

• [Anonymous]

  Catch-phrase marketing – NASA: What if?
  Traditional marketing – NASA: Exploration Drives Innovation
  F-dude marketing – NASA: Trying to get off, ’cause this planet is screwed

• [Anonymous]

  “To Infinity and Beyond!”

• [Anonymous]

  Look up

• [ernie]

  “NASA: Every shuttle launch costs $1 Billion”

• [chasie]

  “The surly in ‘The surly bonds of earth.’ “

• [Anonymous]

  NASA: You’re gonna need us when Skynet goes online.

• [Anonymous]

  “NASA: Underfunded and Underappreciated”

• [ernie]

  Ok, on3 mor3:
  “This is not your father’s NASA (his was better)”

• [Anonymous]

  “Trillions of dollars and 24 dead astronauts so you can have Velcro shoes.”

  or

  “At least we aren’t the Russians…”

  Oh, wait, the Russians beat us at every single space milestone except for pointlessly landing on the moon.

• [Anonymous]

  “ad astra per aspera”

• [conformer]

  “Boldy go.”

  =]’

• [Tian]

  NASA, We are flaming HOT!

• [Stray]

  NASA. Onward. Upward.

• [Flying Squid]

  NASA: Airplanes- TO THE MAX!

• [BSUWG]

  Saw a GREAT cartoon (unavailable online, unfortunately) in a small-press paper last weekend… Had a the space shuttle attached to a large fuel tank in the shape of a bottle, with the caption: “Absolut NASA.”

• [slawkenbergius]

  NASA: Exploring the frontiers of space because poor people can’t emigrate there…

• [unclewilco]

  It’s Space, Jim, but not as we know it

• [tom]

  My “NASA: What’s up” submission at Wired is getting pwned with 3 for and 22 against at the moment. It’s a total troll-fest with the rest of the submissions too.

• [Anonymous]

  “Our astronauts stalk you better”

• [mgabrys]

  Here’s one that’s NOT a frigging joke:

  “We are here to go” : Brion Gysin

• [Anonymous]

  NASA: FUCK YEAH!

  NASA: Hundreds of little robots doing things you could only dream of doing, puny human.

• [Blazorge]

  NASA: “Exploring for answers that power our future. Just don’t ask us anything about global warming because we’re not allowed to talk about it. (I mean, we’re only scientists; what the hell do we know?)”

  NASA: “Hubble Telescope…Schmubble Telescope.”

  NASA: “The International Space Station. Nothing to learn but who the fuck cares? What? Oh yeah,…ah um NASA: Exploring the power of the answers bla bla bla.”

• [Anonymous]

  All your space are belong to us

• [Erik]

  Our Focus is Beyond Infinity

• [Anonymous]

  Space is the place

• [jeneralZ]

  NASA: LEADING HUMANITY FORWARD.

• [jeneralZ]

  NASA: LEADING HUMANITY FORWARD.

• [Anonymous]

  Seems like the wired poll is getting trolled. Mudkips, anyone?

• [Anonymous]

  NASA – Putting men on the tops of towers of high explosive built by the lowest bidder since 1961.

  NASA – Yes I know we said we’d be on Mars by 1983.

  NASA – You want your flying car when?

  NASA – What do you mean you haven’t got to Alpha Centauri yet?

  NASA – We’re protecting you from the Vermicious Knids.

  NASA – Per Ardua what now?

  I’ll stop, it’s late.

• [Simon Greenwood]

  #21 was me – you wouldn’t believe how NoScript makes this site hard to register with.

  I would like to change the last one to:

  NASA – Per Ardua ad what now?

  Thank you.

• [Fred von Lohmann]

  A friend in college designed a NASA poster for a graphic arts class. It was the image of a shuttle launch, accompanied by a single word: “Up”.

• [Anonymous]

  Need
  Another
  Seven
  Astronauts

• [OM]

  …My preference is thus:

  “Space is our ticket to the Future. Either come along for the ride, or go fuck yourself in the pits of Hell with Mondale, Proxmire and anyone else who’s been against the program!”

  May be a bit wordy, but it *does* get the important message across…:)

• [Anonymous]

  “My God, it’s full of stars”

• [Hamish Grant]

  NASA: Champion-Level Money Burning

• [Anonymous]

  Cynical slogans first:

  It’s not like it’s rocket science. Oh, wait…

  Is not so grt, aktully

  I has rockits!

  Spending money so DoD doesn’t have to

  Welfare for the Aerospace Industry. They need it more than you do.

  Big Pork for Big Companies

  Gullible and Starry Eyed? We’ve Got You Covered.

  Oh, Hai! [caption for image of a cat sitting in the smoldering wreckage of a spacecraft]

  Because they canceled the Cold War

  Still Watching Spiders on LSD in Zero-G

  Men in Space. Because the Pork is Better than with Robots.

  Let Me See Your Unit

  Alien Robots R Us

  Positive slogans:

  Your eyes and ears in space

  Earth Robots in Space

  Stairway to the Planets

  Transporting the Human Spirit

• [Cpt. Tim]

  “Only trying harder so private space companies don’t make us look like fools.”