Bush to announce new moon mission

drudge ^ | 12/3/3 | unknown

[LandofLincoln]

Let me guess, my fellow conservatives who seem to be on a slippery slope to the right will not consider this bigger government/bigger taxes. And I am somehow UNPATRIOTIC to even question this quest.

[My2Cents]

Who says we have to use nukes? :-)

[narby]

Depends on what one calls "the space program." The Apollo and Space Shuttle programs had jack squat to do with GPS.

Actually, the orbital science done during Gemini and Apollo and some side experiments with spacecraft tracking had a lot to do with proving that GPS would work at all, and thus get it financed. I don't doubt that had we quit with the building of the ICBM fleet, GPS wouldn't exist.

One of the lead computer navigation people on Apollo was named "Garmin". I haven't found out yet if he was "The" Garmin, but I wouldn't doubt it.

[Howlin]

Give it a rest, will ya?

[My2Cents]

As I suggested on another thread on this same topic, maybe the "limited government" types who frown on spending our money on a space program should advocate ripping up the national interstate highway system too. Seems that horses and canals did a pretty good job in the late 1700s.

[Prime Choice]

Care to explain how any of the above wouldn't be accomplished even more easily and cheaply from Geosychronous orbit?

Stationary placement on a naturally-moving platform. Requires no resources for orbital maintenance. Can't be taken out by "killer satellites."

BTW, we're signatory to a treaty banning nukes in space.

...and China? Don't recall their signing it.

Am I to presume that you think China would be going to the moon if it didn't hold some military significance to them? Guess again.

[MyOptic]

Like Galager replied when talking about the Preparation H commercials holding his hands out in front of him, if this is the problem, this isn’t the answer. I have worked in the bowels of the NASA beast for 7 years, and in this time I have seem waste, sloth and mindless bureaucratic nonsense that made my stint in the navy seem like a lesson in efficiency. What should take weeks takes literally years of power struggles, layers upon layers of management decisions, petty bickering and ineptitude being rewarded with promotions. I worked in a shop where cutting edge technology would allow us to perform a task in days, but due to management decisions, they “preferred” that we performed these jobs manually, and the project would take 1 to 2 years. The cost of the equipment would have been paid for with the price of 6 months of our labor. NASA was once a great entity, but after Apollo, it has degenerated into just another Government Hog at the public trough. I would love to see more manned explorations, just not run by NASA.

[Hodar]

Are you sure you want to list "weather prediction" as being something successful?

I think you would find that the East coast and the Gulf States think that Hurricane prediction is a bit better today than it was 30 years ago. Now, property damage is going to happen, with or without an alert. But how many lives have been saved? I'd wager the number is greater than one.

[Moonman62]

Insults aside, we still need to dream.

What insults? And when did the federal government create a new bureau for dream weaving?

[John H K]

Look, I'm sorry, much of the spin-off stuff is basically PR.

The space program is not the most efficient way to get smoke detectors and nice ski boots.

And you seriously believe we wouldn't have smoke detectors without the space program?

[Hodar]

I'd support a manned Mars mission, myself, but I'd consider men back to the moon a total waste of time. And I'd kill the (expletive) Space Station.

We are 100% harmoniously in tune on these topics. We've been to the moon, and going back does not require a great deal of new research; frankly the challenge is simply not there. Mars, however .... that's a challenge worthy of our efforts.

[Moonman62]

The false premise is that none of those items would exist were it not for the space program. Also, it supports the idea that the government has to initiate anything economically useful itself, which is patently untrue.

Give it a rest. The truth us unpleasant. Now leave us alone so we can decide how to spend your money.

[marblehead17]

This is awesome. Had we not killed the Apollo Program we'd have landed on Mars by now. Who killed the program? Wasn't it Mondale.

[narby]

NASA was once a great entity, but after Apollo, it has degenerated into just another Government Hog at the public trough. I would love to see more manned explorations, just not run by NASA.

I saw the same thing when I worked at NASA/JPL. And that was only a decade or so after Apollo.

I have optimisim though, that if given the right goal, and a thrashing from the commander in chief, that NASA might become something to be proud of again. I doubt it, but it might.

[somemoreequalthanothers]

You're correct about hurricane prediction. My post was meant to humurously allude to the ineptitude of our day to day weather forecasts.

[Willie Green]

America needs to quest for goals that are currently unreachable and needs to dream again. Currently we are downtrodden and aimless, we need hope.
Bump to that!

How about we dream about high-speed rail and Maglev instead?

You know, something that we ALL might have a chance of riding before we die.

Going to the Moon is nice if you have money to burn, but I don't think many of us will ever actually make the trip.

[narby]

Look, I'm sorry, much of the spin-off stuff is basically PR.

Read my post about the education that many thousands of engineers got working on Apollo. Do you think they just walked away from that incredible experience and never used any of those skills and business contacts again?

I'm convince that this is the true legacy of Apollo. It might be the hardest to document, but nevertheless the largest by far. And combine it with the push for science training after Sputnik (which has now been abandoned).

[LandofLincoln]

Double that

[Howlin]

I seriously believe that you could ruin the proverbial "w#t" dream.

[narby]

Who killed the program?

Mainly, it was Nixon. Vietnam got expensive, and NASA was Kennedy's thing, which obviously got under Nixon's skin after 1960.

[Howlin]

How about we multi-task and dream of them both, eh?

Just drag some of these
"stick in the mud" types along with us.