Analysis of my Rhetorical Situation

NASA HQ PHOTO. "Expedition 44 Press Conference (201507210027HQ)" via Flickr, 7/21/15. Attribution NonCommercial No Derivs.

Who are you and why are you here? Keep reading my analysis of the rhetorical situation: context, audience, purpose, and author, to figure out why you are the science loving person I think you are.

  Audience: Who are you? Typically, my reader for my essay on NASA's decision to utilize private flight for space missions, will be engineers or people interested in that area of human exploration. The engineers for this type of project are typically white, straight males, with a middle class upbringing, but there are an ever increasing amount of racial diversity and evening out of gender classes in this field. These handy and problem solving people are the type to read Wired, PC Magazine, and Popular Science, surfing Reddit when they are off work, or glancing at an article on the Onion. Going home they watch big movies, and are very into technology, so they work on their car or computer, sometimes both. Their value on advancement, technology, and finishing problems in the easiest way contrasts their lack of interest in aesthetics, fashion, or social issues, because when their is more to explore, fix, or figure out, what else matters. 

Purpose:  Why do I do this you ask? Because interested and sometimes invested people that follow these topics deserve to be informed of both sides of the issue without a bias conclusion. After reading this essay, any reader should come out with more knowledge than they came in, and they should be able to argue both sides of the issue, no matter where there heart lies. There are key nuances that are easy to miss, such as the specifics as to how much money these private companies will be making off of the space flights, or what the current budget of NASA is, and how is that projected to affect all of the program it has in store right now. With this new digital age, exploration in space has been brought to every screen across the world. Now, as companies are getting involved, this controversy will have a global impact and will set a precedent for the rest of this century. 

Author: Why me?  My experience starts with my passion for technology. I work with computer five days a week at SWS computers and have volunteered every Sunday for the past two years at the Pima Air and Space Museum, meaning I have more knowledge than the average person when it comes to space. I am efficient and practical when it comes to my decisions, tinkering with computer, fixing up my car, or working around the house, and I recognize that the choice to bring the private industry into space is one of those decisions that must be made for the advancement of space flight in the future. My passion to find out the history of an issue, and my interests in space and flight in general, as I study to become an Aerospace Engineer, will aid me along the way to create a complete look at this controversy in my essay.