Three-fifths of Americans oppose Bush's mission to moon, Mars [rather it be spent on entitlements]

AFP ^ | 1.19.04 | AFP

[ambrose]

Three-fifths of Americans oppose Bush's mission to moon, Mars

WASHINGTON (AFP) - More than three-fifths of Americans oppose President George W. Bush (news - web sites)'s proposal to return to the moon and eventually put a human on Mars, according to a poll.

His plan to spend billions of dollars to manned mission to the moon and eventually to Mars drew opposition from 61 percent of the 1,003 adults surveyed January 14-15.

Bush called late Wednesday for a new space vessel capable of traveling to the moon as early as 2015. He would give the US space agency NASA (news - web sites) an additional billion dollars over five years, in addition to its annual budget of 15.4 billion dollars.

Even among members of Bush's own Republican party, 48 percent opposed the plan against the 42 percent who supported it.

About nine percent of the people questioned in the Time/CNN poll said they would spend billions of dollars on space exploration. Some 40 percent they would rather improve education, 27 percent would balance the federal budget, and 13 percent would clean up the environment. Only seven percent said they would enlarge the military.

The survey has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.1 percentage points.

[South40]

Even among members of Bush's own Republican party, 48 percent opposed the plan against the 42 percent who supported it.

I'm in the group that opposes it.

What's your opinion?

[Thebaddog]

It is my assertion right now that in five years, Mars is all that we will be talking about. W is the most visionary president that has come along in a long time. The media won't give him his due right now, but we are going to Mars.

W1 again, in advance!

God Bless America.

[goodnesswins]

"Only seven percent said they would enlarge the military."

Well....that says a LOT! So many stupid people, so little time. And, furthermore, wars in the future could be fought from outerspace. I'm all for this.

[foreverfree]

bump

[ambrose]

My opinion is not only should we go, we must go.

[mabelkitty]

Sorry - this is from Agence-France - European "news" isn't "news" - it's propoganda to warm us to Socialism.

[ambrose]

That's the point of a leader. To lead! A leader doesn't follow the fleeting whims of the ignorant sheep who care more about Survivor reruns than exploring *all* of god's creation, not just this tiny rock we were born on.

[It's me]

I oppose it. I really don't see the importance about the moon and/or Mars. I think the money can be well spent here, on the military for instance.

But then again, I never really liked space exploration or the study of the dinosaurs!!!

[ambrose]

ping.

[Glenn]

Turn the Buck Rogers bux over to the private sector. NASA is a bloated beast of burden.

[Paleo Conservative]

I'm in the group that opposes it.

What's your opinion?

I am against the entitlement spending 100%. Do you remember the same argument made in the late '60s early '70s that by ending the Apollo program we could spend money on social programs and solve social problems? Well we did spend the money on social prgrams, but that spending acutually made the problems worse by undermining family structures and creating a culture of dependency. I think a mission to Mars would be much more preferable than the boondoggle International Space Station. I think such a mission would also have lots more spinoff benefits for the economy than the ISS while spending on entitlements would hurt society.

[Sans-Culotte]

I see no reason to visit a desert planet in space just "because it's there".

The space race with the Soviets had cold war/military implications. Going to Mars seems completely pointless, IMO (unless it is done solely to burn up money that would otherwise be pissed away on entitlements).

[Jim Noble]

I'm in the group that opposes it. What's your opinion?

Every dollar that it takes away from greedy geezers and welfare queens is a dollar to the good.

Since the last year of Prpject Apollo, we have wasted seven trillion dollars on meaningless socialist garbage.

Let's do something productive for a change.

[TomServo]

More than three-fifths..

Hey - that reminds me...

[rdb3]

About nine percent of the people questioned in the Time/CNN poll said they would spend billions of dollars on space exploration. Some 40 percent they would rather improve education, 27 percent would balance the federal budget, and 13 percent would clean up the environment. Only seven percent said they would enlarge the military.

This sounds to me like a heavily Leftist sample.

[marron]

Why sail over the horizon? We have plenty of problems right here in Spain...

[BykrBayb]

I'm not really sure what's so important about going to Mars. It's interesting, and I enjoy looking at the photos, but what's it really worth? I'd like to see more money spent on satellite imaging. I wonder if some of this Mars money will go toward spy technology. Wouldn't it be nice to have better quality photos, and more of them? I think that's where I'd spend the money. And I might even tell the public that the money was being spent on manned missions to Mars.

[Steve Eisenberg]

What's your opinion?

My opinion is that this survey gave a false idea of the size of the space program. The deficit, or even a significant increase in the size of the US military, is far more money. And that's the whole space program. The budget increase the President asked for is minute compared with these suggested alternative ways to spend or not spend the money.

My opinion is that the President should have been bolder in cutting off manned exploration, but not to save money. Rather at this point I think we need to perfect robotic missions. If we do enough of them, on enough moons and planets, costs will come down and the success rate go up. Once we have a robotic infrastructure on Mars (power plant, maybe a few buildings, definitely tunnels) we can send up colonists. But probably not in my middle-aged lifetime.

Also, we should put up an unmanned radio listening station on the far side of the moon. Well shielded from the radio/IV interference on earth, if there are other civilizations out there, we would have a good chance of hearing their transmissions. It would interest me a lot more to see TV from another planet than to watch the first man on Mars on our TV. (Not to mention that everything on alien TV would probably interest me more than ours.)

[Dionysius]

I would rather see them (public funds) shot into space where it at least has a chance of delivering some return than flushed down the toilet of public education.