[goldstategop]

We should focus plans on developing a new space vehicle that will allow us to land and take off from the moon and asteroids. We will eventually want to establish a permanent lunar base. The first landing of man on the moon in the 1960s must not be the last. Its time to explore the ocean of space.

[hedgetrimmer]

Go Buzz!

How do we all help to make this happen?

[boris]

None of this will happen. Not one of his ideas. Zip. Zero. Zilch.

NASA's budget is a ripe plum waiting for plunder. When terrorists ignite a dirty nuke in Chicago or release Smallpox in Baltimore, kiss it good by.

This nation will focus on terrorism and dealing with radical Islam, and NASA simply will not be on the radar screen, much less a priority.

U.S. leadership in space is over.

We will do none of the above in my lifetime. Perhaps the Japanese or Chinese, but the U.S. Space program is finished, kaput, dead.

--Boris

[JmyBryan]

My desire is that we cut back NASA and do more undersea exploration and experimentation. The oceans are filled with energy and resources, yet we think Mars may offer benefit. Until we develop new and better technologies, let's stay in Earth orbit, and figure out what the planet we live on has to offer.

[Centurion2000]

I've got a better idea .... start building ORION drives and get real tonnage off this rock and into orbit.

If you make orbit, you're halfway to anywhere in the solar system.

[brityank]

It is possible that our exploration of the moon happened a century too early. We did the right thing, but it was for the wrong reasons, and once the Cold War wound down, the space race quickly became a low priority precicely because science and the economic uses of space were never important goals.         -- Wilhelm Tell at #11

Well said, WT; the lack of economic planning and development is the main killer to our future space ventures.

Interesting column from Buzz Aldrin, and some added perceptive comments below.

 

[If you want off or on my Columbia ping list, let me know. FReegards.]

[swarthyguy]

Well, how about starting one.

We'll wake up when some other country shocks us, a la Sputnik.

Til then, snooze time.

Then we'll wake up to realize that a 30+ year advantage in space travel has evaporated.