Jack McDevitt is a prolific SF author, with a couple of running series that recently appeared in booklog entries here (see, for example, Antiquities Dealers in Spaaaace!!!). Coincidentally, he’s also talked to the Slush God, in an interview posted at SciFi Weekly. He says a bunch of interesting stuff, and not just about his books:
The problem with space travel is that you don’t really get much benefit from it. Not the sort that makes, say, for better transportation or better toothpaste. NASA is always trying to sell it that way, but the money would be better spent developing the toothpaste directly than looking for it to come out of the space program.
The problem is that scientists are notoriously poor public relations people. The space program gives us, basically, blue-sky science. It teaches us about the place where we live. But the truth is most people don’t care. More than half of the U.S. population, before the recent stir over “degrading” Pluto, didn’t know where in the system it could be found. Whatever the reason, we’ve been notoriously unsuccessful in stirring the interest of kids in the sciences. The condition is exacerbated by the fact that roughly 1/3 of the U.S. population sees science as an enemy, as a force trying to disrupt their faith.
It’s a good read, as author interviews go.