The things we could do if our president had the balls to put our mars ambitions into action.
I love when NASA complains that no one is interested in the public in what they do: yes putting up satellites and standard shuttle flights are just sooooo exciting. Do something cool (like the comet impact) and you'll generate support.
Unfortunately, our government is too busy codding illegal aliens, sucking up resources into social programs, and propagandizing that Islam is a "religion of peace" to bother with incentives for the space program.
President Bush did not directly address the risks of spaceflight, but he made it clear he believes his new moon/Mars initiative will reinvigorate the space program.
"It is important for our fellow citizens to understand that we're going to take the NASA mission beyond the current mission," he said. "The plan right now is to phase out the shuttle by 2010 and then begin to put a strategy in place that will use the moon as a launching spot for further exploration. ... The people I've talked to inside NASA are excited about the mission, the reinvigoration of the vision of exploration.
"And I appreciate the administrator (Michael Griffin) working on getting that strategy in place so that when the decision is made to finally get rid of this phase of exploration we'll be ready to take on the new phase. That's important for the American people to understand, that, one, exploration is important. Two, there'll be some good coming out of exploration. And three, that we've got a new vision embraced by NASA and its pioneers."