When I was a young man, I followed all the missions of the Mercury, Gemini and Apollo series as well as the unmanned spacecraft like Voyager. In those days, average people got a chance to play with all the scientific instruments and were often central to the planning process of scientific advancement. If that were not true, Edwin Hubble would not have even had a chance to participate. Today, when NASA and others "reach out," it is in a diminutive way. Usually, it involves some cute demo for non-scientists, visiting lecturers to "educate the public," or some contest like "Name That Crater" or let your name orbit the Moon in some microchip. No matter what the departments of planetary sciences do, it should always involve the general population in some way. There should always be some opportunity for the average Joe to visit a factory or work on a contract to construct items for the mission.
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