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Trump Has Grand Plan For Mission To Mars But Nasa Advises: Cool Your Jets (theguardian.com)
Donald Trump would like to see Americans walk on Mars during his presidency. Nasa would love to get there that quickly, too. The reality of space travel is slightly more complicated, however. From a report: On Monday, during a call with astronaut Peggy Whitson, who was aboard the International Space Station, Trump pressed her for a timeline on a crewed mission to Mars, one of Nasa's longest standing and most daunting goals. "Tell me, Mars," he asked her from the Oval Office, "what do you see a timing for actually sending humans to Mars? Is there a schedule and when would you see that happening?" Whitson answered by pointing out that Trump, by signing a Nasa funding bill last month, had already approved a timeline for a mission in the 2030s. She added that Nasa was building a new heavy-launch rocket, which would need testing. "Unfortunately space flight takes a lot of time and money," she said. "But it is so worthwhile doing." Trump replied: "Well, we want to try and do it during my first term or, at worst, during my second term, so we'll have to speed that up a little bit, OK?" It was not clear whether the president meant the remark as a quip or something more serious.
For the record: I am very pro humans going to Mars. I realize the hurdles, I realize the dangers. I realize we can't economically achieve it right now. I believe in the Buzz Aldrin model of an initially one way trip, I'm aware there is a high risk of life in the early days, (so should any applicant to go).
With all that said, if it takes Trump's ego to get us to Mars, I am all for that. He might actually be one of the very few men at the top willing to risk the political backlash of failure.
Even if we're going for the wrong reasons, I would be glad if we took the steps.
"That's the way to do it" - Punch
"The man is so completely divorced from reality that there's really no way to anticipate what he will do." One constant is that everything he does is about himself. Another constant is that he destroys everything he touches. He loves "strong leaders", i.e., moral degenerates that will step on anyone...errr...like him. The only exceptions are the ones where he thinks he can aggrandize perception of himself by going against a "strong leader" as in Lil'Kimmy and Assad.
Another thing to realize is that he's lost control of his administration, although that is putting it euphemistically. The Defense Dept. is doing things he doesn't understand. His own EPA administrator was exhorting the coal wackos to lobby Trump against the climate accords, as though EPA wasn't really part of the Cabinet. The Cabinet has gone off on their own, even his ghost minders have been sidelined. Treasury's minder got shunted off to a basement office. The rest are being "reassigned" by the Cabinet secretaries. How could they do that if that asshole was in charge? Even his "tax plan" was joke. It was written on a single piece of paper because his attention span won't allow him to comprehend any more. The people writing it know it is crap, but they also know giving him a sheet of talking points makes him feel like he's the President.
He's in charge of nothing except screwing things up.