Acceptance Slow for Bush's Space Plan

[flashl]

Source: Washington Post

With Some Scientists Skeptical, NASA Turns to Advertising Firm to Generate Appeal

Four years after President Bush called for Americans to return to the moon and then voyage on to Mars, NASA is spending hundreds of millions of dollars to design, build and test the spacecraft that would make it possible.

...

Moreover, some top space exploration advocates, policy experts and scientists, including some who initially supported the program, are questioning whether it can ever achieve its goals at a price taxpayers will accept. The doubters are sufficiently worried that they have organized a conference for Feb. 12-13 at Stanford University to debate the issue.

"With a new administration coming in soon, we have to seriously think about whether Constellation is doing what it should," said Louis Friedman, head of the Planetary Society. He was an active early supporter of much of the Bush plan but is now helping to organize the Stanford meeting.

..

NASA, meanwhile, is mounting a vigorous defense of the steps it has taken to turn Bush's vision into a new generation of rockets and crew capsules, a lunar lander and ultimately a settlement on the moon.

Washington Post

Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/02/01/AR2008020103258.html

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Steeple slow in acceptance after spending hundred millions and you need more money?

Manufacture the steeple’s consent by rolling out advertising campaigns. This admin has spent more money and relied heavily on PR to support their endeavors.

Regarding the moon settlement, several years ago, I saw real estate advertisement for property on the moon. The offering to sell property on the moon wasn’t as far fetch as you may think it is. Many years ago, questions were raised about a HUD budget line item that allocated money for apartments on Mars.

[Demeter]

1. Manned Mars Mission--Send Cheney and W

One way--

[flashl]

2. With the grab of land here, maybe their plan is to relocate all the subprime borrowers to the moon.

[Aviation Pro]

3. The selling of real estate on the Moon is a scam....

...and was set up by a loop-hole under the current U.N. agreement, which they are trying to close.

[Aviation Pro]

4. Science.....Insane President?

These two are diametrically opposed to one another.

[pattmarty]

5. Bush is "spaced out".

[benld74]

6. The only space plan I want to see from BUSH is the space,,

is ass RELEASES when he leaves the WHITE HOUSE!

[Olney Blue]

7. Acceptance Slow for Bush. Period.

[bluestdogest]

8. Bush's plan...? Apartments on Mars...?

Far fetched...nevertheless, more space exploration is a damn good idea.

America needs to do more stuff like this and less stuff like Iraq.

[librechik]

9. If the Chimp would volunteer to be first to Mars, I'd be in favor of it

what's wrong with robots? Bush in Space is as smart a plan to get to Mars as the Clear Skies Initiative is to make the air cleaner.

[Oak2004]

10. Hint: It has not gained acceptance because it is scientifically idiotic

The money is coming from the cancellation of countless valuable research programs, AND gutting space research is by itself not enough to fund a Mars program. It's the worst of both worlds: crippling effective research while grossly underfunding what will someday be the most technologically demanding act ever performed by humankind.

Exploring Mars is a cool idea. And it will take the equivalent of the Manhattan Project and the Apollo Program, combined, to pull it off anytime soon. Before we go to Mars we'll need to do that Manhattan Project-grade research and development project in energy, not space exploration. I'm a gung-ho space exploration type, and I'm also aware that human civilization needs to survive long enough to actually pull off a Mars trip.

In the meantime we should be going forward with adventurous, scientifically sound, cost-effective plans for the robotic exploration of space -- not cancelling them or cutting them to the point where they no longer have much if any value. Such exploration is cheap, and can be done at the same time we figure out how to power modern civilization and build the new infrastructure to do it.

Bush's Mars plans are just crazy. They make no sense.