President Bush names 8 moon advisers

The News & Observer ^ | Friday, January 30, 2004

[demlosers]

WASHINGTON (AP) - President Bush on Friday named the eight people from academia and industry who will join former Air Force Secretary Pete Aldridge on a commission charged with figuring out how to get humans back to the moon and beyond. Bush created the Presidential Commission on the Implementation of United States Space Exploration Policy to advise NASA on his new space vision. Earlier this month Bush outlined a goal of sending astronauts back to the moon by 2020 and, eventually, on to Mars. The initiative, to be initially funded by $1 billion in new money over five years and an additional $11 billion diverted from other NASA projects, also envisions a new spacecraft to replace the shuttle and carry astronauts beyond low-Earth orbit.

The commission is to offer advice on Bush's plan, including a moon research agenda; ways to bring in industry and other countries as partners; and suggestions for increasing young people's interest in related fields, according to an executive order Bush signed Friday.

The order instructs the unpaid commission members to provide recommendations to the president within four months of their first meeting and to hold sessions to get views from the public and industry. The commission will be disbanded two months after delivering a final report.

Joining Aldridge, a one-time astronaut trainee and top Pentagon official on the commission, are:

-Carly Fiorina, chairman and chief executive of Hewlett-Packard.

-Michael P. Jackson of Virginia.

-Laurie Ann Leshin, a planetary geochemist at Arizona State University.

-Retired Air Force Gen. Lester Lyles.

-Paul Spudis, a visiting scientist with the Lunar and Planetary Institute in Houston.

-Neil deGrasse Tyson of the Rose Center for Earth and Space at the American Museum of Natural History in New York.

-Former Rep. Robert S. Walker, R-Pa.

-Mars scientist Maria Zuber of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

[GeronL]

OK. That headline just sounds so stupid!

[NormsRevenge]

Carly Fiorina ... LMAO (What the hell does she know about space exploration?)

[Enterprise]

"President Bush names 8 moon advisers

Howard Dean moons his advisers.

[Loyal Buckeye]

Wonder if he considered old Moonbeam, Jerry Brown and Beam Me Up, Jim Trafficnt.

[Lokibob]

Somehow, Michael Jackson and Moon sounds obscene.

[NormsRevenge]

No Moon Zappa, Sun Myung Moon, Soleil Moon Frye or MoonBeam Brown .. Damn! I may have to vote for Komrad Kucinivich now. ;-]

[RightWhale]

Presidential Commission on the Implementation of United States Space Exploration Policy

PCIUSSEP

Catchy name. They will concentrate on moon goals, permanent presence being a given, and consider other possible destinations for our space explorers. Rubber stamp commission?

[FreedomCalls]

-Michael P. Jackson of Virginia.

Huh?

[NormsRevenge]

fyi Ping

[Rebelbase]

I went to school with a kid named Moon.

[Brett66]

Paul Spudis, excellent!

[CommandoFrank]

Why do you need eight advisors to 'moon' someone?

[RightWhale]

The commission is 9 persons.

[NYC GOP Chick]

I was afraid it was yet another muslim outreach program...

[NYC GOP Chick]

These would have been Blubba's "moon advisers":

[GeronL]

mmmmmmmmmmmmoooooooooooooooooooooooonnnnnnn!!!!

[GeronL]

The Nine Mooners will be an interesting sit-com

[jimfree]

When I saw the thread, somehow I knew that even though there were only 19 posts, someone like you would have already raised the importance of moon as an active verb.

[mikrofon]

Could've been a worse title for the group:

"The Presidential Commission on Lunar and Outer Space Exploration and Research"

Rubber stamp? We'll have to see...