Posted on 04/15/2010 4:49:02 PM PDT by myknowledge
President Barack Obama on Thursday set out his plan for the future of the U.S. space agency NASA. His vision includes an eventual manned flight to Mars, although not as soon as many Americans had hoped. The president went to Florida's Kennedy Space Center to defend his controversial proposal to change America's course in space.
President Obama says he wants American space exploration to "leap into the future," and not continue on the same path. "By the mid-2030s, I believe we can send humans to orbit Mars and return them safely to earth, and a landing on Mars will follow, and I expect to be around to see it," he said.
At the Kennedy Space Center, where U.S. space missions begin, Mr. Obama unveiled his proposal for the future of NASA beyond the end of the space shuttle program, which has only three flights remaining.
The president's plan would give private companies almost $6 billion to build their own spacecraft and fly them to the International Space Station. It would also extend the station's life by five years.
(Excerpt) Read more at 1.voanews.com ...
NASA is a tool for global warming dimwits and the Obama plan for NASA is to expand it to spy on polluters, monitor air or anything else environmental they can tax or charge a fee for.
The last thing Stepin Fetchet wants to spend HIS money on is a trip to Mars.
I share your skepticism.
Just return to square one.
Back to the old days of "Ham", "Able" and "Baker".
....And I know EXACTLY who we could launch up there next time!
I heard it was an asteroid...shoot, Bruce Willis already did that!
I read that the fuel requirements just to get there are massive so the best plan would be to take a small nuclear plant along to make fuel while there. Then return to Earth when Mars is closest some 500 days later when adequate fuel has been made. All in all I think we should send 0 and company on a recon orbit. HMMMMMM
...says he wants American space exploration to "leap into the future," and not continue on the same path. "By the mid-2030s, I believe we can send humans to orbit Mars and return them safely to earth, and a landing on Mars will follow, and I expect to be around to see it," he said.What an optimist. Obama's script is: "I plan to kill US heavy lift capability, distract the old geezers who flew on Apollo by claiming to just delay the development while extending Shuttle flights a few years to fill in that gap, then cancel everything right after the last of them dies."
Look, if you want to do it right, we need to learn more about the Sun. Our Moon and Mars are nice, but the Sun affects the earth a lot more.
So lets send him there. I promise to vote for him in 2012, if he touches down and brings back important information.
And isn’t that a more realistic promise than the one he made to us? Ah yes! ;-)
For the record, I do think there is something to be gained by providing funds for corporations to develop a sound space plane. I still don’t think you cut our current programs off at the knees.
Make it sort of a reward program for attaining certain levels of achievement.
Still, this guy doesn’t plan on following through. He wants our space program to dry up and blow away. You know, sort of the same (political) plan I have for his administration.
Americans will head to Mars in a quarter century — aboard a Russian or Chinese ship...
could produce, kinda long way from home to bet your life on a ‘could’
Can we swap Bruce for BHO?
He’d be a much better prez.
Frankly speaking, this claim makes no sense because private companies do all of the work today, and have been since the inception of NASA. Maybe the president plans to give a grant with no governmental oversight? Who holds the liability in the private sector should the spacecraft prove under developed? What is the role of the government? Is it just to purchase seats on the spacecraft?
To me, claiming that private companies can do a government job is brushing off the responsibility and guaranteeing failure. Failure to fund the program; failure to provide consistent and adequate resources; failure to accept responsibility for crashes, for program delays, for lack of funding...
IMO this is not an intelligent approach to R&D for space exploration; it is a formula for failure and abrogation of responsibility. It is a shallow flip-off of NASA. Health care for all in the world is more important to this administration, to be funded by taxpayers and "unproductive" programs. After all, R&D is costly, and cannot be staged to produce results in sync with the election cycle.
All right then, it’s back to the NASA of old.
The key with 0bama is to watch what he actually does, rather than listening to or believing what he might be saying. All too often he will deliver mixed and even conflicting statements, only to eventually do something else entirely.
Barack really thinks that he is the greatest genius to ever grace the Earth. He is the penultimate narcissist.
He’s not the penultimate (next to last). He’s the ultimate.
And he’s also completely crazy and wants to destroy us. But other than that, I’m sure he’s a great guy, except that he walks and talks like an android.
We had nuclear engines under development before someone figured out the were nuclear, and therefore worthy of scorn.
Kennedy”We go to the Moon and do the other things,not because they are easy,but because they are hard.” Obama”because it is so hard we aren’t going to do it and then say we did”
Anyone famniliar with GOV procurement KNOWS this is code for redistribution of wealth via minoroty set asides, minority contract bid preferences etceera etcetera. We will see a transition of our Space Program infrastructure from the best and brightest to the least and dumbest...
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