That is certainly a possibility. Bush has not indicated that there will be a significant increase in NASA's budget. Instead, NASA has been instructed to redirect their efforts.
This is a very real and bery worthy goal to the politicians and an equally worthy goal of the engineers and PhDs who will get big fat sinecures that they might otherwise have to work for.
Politicians will get their pork one way or another.
You apparently know little or nothing about engineers and engineering. Engineering work is anything but easy. Placing a man on the moon is anything but trivial. The engineers will most definitely work hard for any 'sinecures' they may earn. You can question whether a moon colony is the best use of engineering talent, but never question the difficulty and dedication required by engineers to accomplish that goal.
If engineering were easy, everyone would be doing it! Perhaps even you!!
As for the rest of us, maybe not so worthy.
Wrong again. Just as the Apollo program provided the impetus for an explosion of inventions (microchips, computers, LCD displays, satellites, plastics, Tang! Just to name a few), so too will a vigorous program to colonize the moon result in an leap in technology.
>>(the moon) The ultimate military high ground!
>Calling this military high ground is like calling the Himalayas military high ground during the Viet Nam war.
Sorry, but you could not be more wrong. Imagine a spy satellite that cannot be shot down. Imagine a permanent nuclear launch site that cannot be taken out in 15 minutes. That is what the moon is. A missiles may be a stretch, but you better believe that the moon is highly desireable as an excellent listening post.
Well, since you set the tone here, you apparently know nothing about economics, politics, the meaning of the word sinecure, the military and everything else that you write about. Engineering isn't all that difficult when you have no consequences if you fail and an unlimited budget. Try real hard and think of any negative consequences to the engineers at NASA and its subcontrators if any of their robot probes fail. BZZZZZZT time is up. There aren't any.
Now try and think about the consequences if the engineers in a private company fail to produce a functional product. Company doesn't make money and engineers are out looking for another job. Not a sinecure.
Just as the Apollo program provided the impetus for an explosion of inventions (microchips, computers, LCD displays, satellites, plastics, Tang!
Total utter and absolute bull sh!t. Saying all of these are the result of the space program is like trying to make us believe that without the National Endowmwent for the Arts there wouldn't be any art.
bs bs bs bs Imagine a permanent nuclear launch site that cannot be taken out in 15 minutes. bs bs
Try a little critical thinking here. If the moon is "high ground", then Mars should be even higher ground right? And Jupiter even higher still. Which is of course nonsense. What you're forgetting is that it's too far away for military use.
I have a question for you. Since you are aware that we landed people on the moon and the Chinese didn't, what negative impact did this have on the Chinese?