I think the keys to accelerating our pace in space are: (1) raising
curious minds by making education more proactive for students, and (2)
inspiring everyone by more effectively sharing the new experiences that come
from our space activities. More specifically, we can enhance people's
curiosity by (1) training educators to be effective in inspiring and
motivating students and (2) providing people with more frequent and
realistic exposures to outer space experience through multimedia.

I strongly feel that we should try to reform the general approach to
education so that students can learn proactively rather than passively; this
will in the long run contribute to our progress in space exploration. The
focus of education should be to arouse their curiosity about what they are
about to learn instead of forcing or rushing them to study. It is crucial to
train teachers at all levels of education to be effective at inspiring and
motivating their students. This will help raise curious minds who are eager
to explore outer space.

To share the experience of space exploration and inspire people, we should
really provide more exposures and take advantage of multimedia. People will
be much more enthusiastic about space programs if they have more chances to
experience even a tiny fraction of all the excitement and wonders that come
with our space activities. There are enough interesting news in space for
them to hear more of it instead of hearing about another murder. I think we
could make the most significant change through television: so many people
around the world spend so much time watching nonsense. Could it be that
difficult to produce a regular program featuring images and videos from
space that will keep the audience from switching to some soap opera? It will
take an effort, but I believe it is worthwhile, both for the public and for
our long-term progress in space. Something like the NASA TV is an excellent
start; it should really be made easily accessible to everyone. 40 years into
the space age, we deserve a global space channel. I wish every single person
on Earth can see and appreciate the amazing images taken by the Hubble. I
wish everyone can watch the high-resolution video of Earth taken from orbit
real-time. I wish everyone can aspire to some day go out to space if they
make the effort. By bringing space closer to our lives through media, these
wishes can become a reality.

Finally, I think we the young space explorers (YSE) can best contribute to
accelerating our space progress by inspiring younger students (YS) as their
role models. Therefore I propose a program to encourage and facilitate YSE
to visit local schools to share with YS their experiences with their
involvement in space activities. Such program would not only impact the YS,
but also give the YSE valuable experience for public outreach and
opportunities to look at their own activities from a different perspective.

-Yuki 2002