Posted on 08/13/2008 12:20:39 AM PDT by Names Ash Housewares
Current U.S. space operations policy commits the U.S. to completing the International Space Station (ISS) by 2010 and then terminating the Space Shuttle flights, with the completion of the ISS. The NASA vision for space exploration calls for sending a robotic lunar lander to the Moon in 2008/2009 time period to begin searching for potential base sites and for development and deployment of a new manned space craft for lunar missions. The current policy also calls for new vehicles (referred to as the Orion crew vehicle and the Ares launch vehicle) to be ready for Earth orbit by 2015 and lunar landing by 2020 with an eventual mission to Mars.
As President, John McCain will -
Ensure that space exploration is top priority and that the U.S. remains a leader;
Commit to funding the NASA Constellation program to ensure it has the resources it needs to begin a new era of human space exploration.
Review and explore all options to ensure U.S. access to space by minimizing the gap between the termination of the Space Shuttle and the availability of its replacement vehicle;
Ensure the national space workforce is maintained and fully utilized; Complete construction of the ISS National Laboratory;
Seek to maximize the research capability and commercialization possibilities of the ISS National Laboratory;
Maintain infrastructure investments in Earth-monitoring satellites and support systems;
Seek to maintain the nation's space infrastructure;
Prevent wasteful earmarks from diverting precious resources from critical scientific research;
and Ensure adequate investments in aeronautics research.
(Excerpt) Read more at spaceref.com ...
Obama only recently cooked something up after a major flip flop on the matter. He orginally wanted to raid NASA funds and delay the Constellation program years in favor of social spending.
And return to moon is clearly something McCain supports. Unlike Obama that has been silent on that little detail.
A good straight forward plan that gives progress in space exploration its proper priority while maintaining realistic goals.
I like that he doesn’t play politics with it.
The nations that lead on the frontiers end up dictating the course of human history.
McCain understands why China is seeking the high frontier.
That is good. The Democrats would do away with the space program and spend the money on free high-definition TVs for people on welfare, free needles for drug addicts and Viagra for registered sex offenders.
For a brief time 500 years ago China was exploring the world with huge, ultra-modern (for the times) sailing ships. Then a new enperor came along and he banned exploration and science and had the great ships destroyed. China stagnated for many years after that. We can learn from their mistake.
"Say what?"
As President, B-chan will -
Annex the Moon as the United States Lunar Territories;
Commit to funding the Warp Drive project.
Review and explore all options to ensure U.S. access to space by offering a tax-free cash prize equal to NASA’s projected four-year budget for the first private operator to land on the moon using a reusable space vehicle
Ensure the national space workforce is maintained and fully utilized by establishing the United States Space Service
Sell the ISS
Sell all Earth-monitoring satellites and support systems over to private industry
Refocus NASA on R&D and the maintainance of the nation’s space infrastructure;
Fully fund the Giant Robot Project
and replace boring, middle-aged male astronauts with comely teenage coeds in skin-tight spacesuits
Good news. Only a fool would vote for obama. Oh wait we have alot of those in America.Useless idiots.
“so we’re going to the moon?”
Returning actually, to stay. We rushed to the moon to swiftly last time, with no long term goal. This was a mistake.
“I thought we did that almost 40 years ago.”
Indeed. So we can do it again, and not make the mistake of no long term plan.
“Aviation, in 40 years, went from the Wright Bros. to Nazi jets.”
The analog of comparing aircraft evolution to spaceflight is flawed. The costs and powers necessary to achieve orbit are exponentially higher.
“What happened to the space program?”
Building a space station, (mankind may never know a time without permanant human presence in space) flying the most complex machine in the world: a reusable winged spacecraft. Exploring the solar system with robots, rovers, landers, deep space probes, repairing and servicing space telescopes. Learning learning learning, sometime from terrible mistakes. Building experience with hardware and flight time for astronauts.
“It’s unbelievable that almost 40 years have passed since we went to the moon.”
Agreed. And it is time to move outward for good now.
“and since that we have gone nowhere else.”
Again, we have did a lot of muscle building, learning, building, and gaining experience functioning in space.
It matters, believe me it does.
“A base on the moon?”
That is a long term goal.
“Why?”
To build those muscles, to learn, to gain experience, to make mistakes, mistakes that are only three days from home and not 9 months. To explore and exploit the lunar surface. To study what we can do with the moon. Look up “helium 3” for an exmaple.
“will we use it as a launching pad to further exploration?”
Perhaps. It is certainly a building block.
McSpace ping
Yes, that's the plan. First step on the road to a manned mission to Mars.
Sounds as good as could be hoped for even though I’m not sure McCain will be that enthusiastic after NASA goes delayed and over budget.
I’d be really interested with how he’ll deal with the Russian problem in regards to the ISS. What a tangled mess that’s going to be, if he wants to play hardball he should kick their ass off of the ISS.
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