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Bush To Announce Manned Trip To Moon, Mars
edmunz writes "Foxnews just placed an article on their website saying that Bush is expected to make an announcement towards the middle of next week, proposing a manned mission to Mars as well as a return to the moon. Bush hopes to spark a renewed public interest in space exploration. No mission would happen any time soon, rather a preparation of over a decade would take place before the first men/women set out to explore Mars."
Why do we need to spend billions and trillions of dollars, just so that people can dream the "dream" and be inspired? This goes WAY beyond science or investment - this is ridiculous. Science much better served by deciding what we want, sending probes, deciding if anything useful can be gained by sending live human bodies to a hostile world, then deciding the best way to spend resources. This plan is like saying we should build open-air condos on the Mars without even thinking of terraforming it yet. Mars holds far more mysteries than what's going to happen when a size-9 space boot displaces some dust.
Yes - we should develop technologies that will eventually allow us to have longer-term access to extra-atmosphere environments, etc. But that's just a small part of the research we should be doing... instead, we're going to end up spending almost all our research expenses on doing exactly what is needed for this trip (which other have mentioned is almost all old technology), and even further ignoring almost all other research avenues.
If you want an adventure of the imagination - try imagining bigger! This is a prime example of how a mild imagination will make a trip to Mars seem like the pinacle of human possibility.
Ryan Fenton
P.S. Can you imagine the backlash from those opposed to science-related philosophies if this mission ends up as dissapointing, much less a large failure. "Man on the moon" was a spectacular achievement, what happens when "Man on Mars" ends up a joke? Not intending doom and gloom - just an issue of priorities with our explorations and asperations.
TBD:
1. Plant flag
2. Setup embarkation office and make sure any Chinese or European visitors leave fingerprints and photo
3. Ensure that there will be no queing in front of the toilet by foreign passengers while flying over American territory (Moon, Mars, Universe)
4. ?
5. Profit!
605413? Yes, it's a prime.
The Economy 'Sucks' (Actually the growth in the last few quarters has been better than at any time during the Clinton admin) because of 9/11, Corporate scandles (which happend under Clinton but were caught under Bush), and outsourcing which has to do with the weak trade barriers that both parties put into place.
Lets see what the taxcut has done... The amount of Tax receipts pulled in by the US Government was 1,827,454 Million Dollars last year it was 1,853,173 Million, oh yea that tax cut killed our revenue (and this was after 9/11 and the economy that 'sucks'). Now where any problem lies it with the fact bush spends money like a liberal (education is more than 65% up under him, the only things down is transportation. If Bush did not spend money like Ted Kennedy on a bender the problem of deficits would not be there..