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I will have to disagree with the President on this position. A man going to Mars cannot feel, smell, hear, touch, or taste anything; all they can do is see and we have a device there to do that now. That device works 24 on 7 and can see much better than any astronaut can. And I do not believe in the one step at a time either; the other planets in our solar system are too harsh an environment to support mankind being there even for exploration, they too will require robots which are a fraction of the costs to send out.

A man going to Mars cannot feel, smell, hear, touch, or taste anything; all they can do is see and we have a device there to do that now.

Sure he can. He can scoop up all the Martian soil he wants and take it into the habitat. There he can eat it, snort it, roll in it, sleep on it, anything he wants. He can try growing vegetables in it, or just scatter it around to feel more at home.

But don't stay up late worrying about it. We aren't going to Mars, and I rather doubt we are even going back to the moon. Presidents who want to do something 1) throw money at it and 2) set the deadline within their terms or very soon afterward so that enough money is spent by the time they leave office to make canceling it politically unpalatable.

All Bush really did was kick the ball down the road.