Posted on 09/15/2005 11:46:54 AM PDT by Airborne1986
WASHINGTON - NASA briefed senior White House officials Wednesday on its plan to spend $100 billion and the next 12 years building the spacecraft and rockets it needs to put humans back on the Moon by 2018.
The U.S. space agency now expects to roll out its lunar exploration plan to key Congressional committees on Friday and to the broader public through a news conference on Monday, Washington sources tell SPACE.com.
U.S. President George W. Bush called in January 2004 for the United States to return to the Moon by 2020 as the first major step in a broader space exploration vision aimed at extending the human presence throughout the solar system.
(Excerpt) Read more at msnbc.msn.com ...
You're absolutely right. It's amazing that they could go to the moon on what, 16K of RAM? And we can't hardly write a grocery list with less than 64M these days!
I know, I'm being facetious, but still....
Developing new budget-enhancement technology.
"They will be able to land on the far side and the polls, they will learn how to "live off the land". Extracting water and oxygen. Learning how to do these things paves the way for Mars."
I don't think we should be spending money now going to the Moon so that we can spend even more later to go to Mars. But setting that aside for a moment, do we have to go to the Moon to develop these techniques? Can't we replicate the environmental conditions and do the R&D and testing here more cheaply and safely?
In the Heinlein books, a private company did make the first moon landing. He had laterr stories where people were living on the moon too.
I did mean it as a comment. Take it as a compliment. Certainly not an insult.
"NASA is hopeless."
I disagree completly.
NASA is not without blame and responsiblity. But NASA has been victim to the whims of politics and terrible budget hits. Changing goals, Lack of long term goals, leadership.
Usage as a political tool by Clinton. (too much reliance on the Russians and political stunts like flying Glenn)
Bush has set the course. Long term goals. Everyone is on the same page. Griffen is a true believer in the dream.
Hopeless?
Cassini at Saturn, Twin Mars Rovers, Hubble.
Yes the reflight of Shuttle as dated as she is, she still has a job to complete, the station will be completed. No other country has these abilities.
The new vehicles are in the works. Taking the best of Apollo and shuttle.
Were headed back tot he moon to stay, and beyond.
The people that will set foot on the surface of Mars are alive today. Maybe even in high school.
"Can't we replicate the environmental conditions and do the R&D and testing here more cheaply and safely?"
We learn by doing. We learn by flying. We learn by going. By touching. By making mistakes. By challenging ourselves in ways we never have before. We cant stay in the safe cradle of earth forever. Nor are we capable of that. Humans are driven to explore. It is why we are here at all.
Cheaper, safer?
That is not the essence of exploration. And exploration is part of the essence of humankind.
Great risk brings great rewards. There are no shortcuts.
"OK, we'll have the the plaque amended:"
Hold on a minute! Allow me to misquote Ronald Reagan: "I am paying for this [plaque]." :)
In Shanghai. ;)
"That is not the essence of exploration. And exploration is part of the essence of humankind.
What reward/dividend has the tax payer received for subsidizing two Space Shuttles that have been lost along with their crews? Some great Discovery Channel programming? I don't think tax dollars should be used merely to achieve the goals articulated by Captain Kirk in the introduction to Star Trek. We have other business to take care of on Earth.
Regurgitating the "best of Apollo and the Shuttle" is another back to the future move. Space flight is relatively cheap, after that first 100 miles. Building throw away launchers, no matter how cheap, will never compete with a vehicle that's merely refueled like your 747 and flown again.
Yes, such a development would cost an enormous amount of money. But the technology is within sight, and NASA is not taking that route.
That merely locks them into being the sole provider for manned space flight, which I'm sure is their motivation. They really don't care about making humanity a space fairing species. They just want to keep the government money gravy train flowing. They've already given contracts to Burt Rutan for research work, which I'm sure are merely the first step to make sure he doesn't actually build a real reusable spacecraft, lest he lose valuable contracts.
I'm very disappointed.
"What reward/dividend has the tax payer received for subsidizing two Space Shuttles that have been lost along with their crews? Some great Discovery Channel programming? I don't think tax dollars should be used merely to achieve the goals articulated by Captain Kirk in the introduction to Star Trek. We have other business to take care of on Earth."
I am a private pilot. I enjoy a privilage that for the vast existance of humanity simply did not exist nor was even thought to be possible. And only 100 years ago.
A blink of an eye.
In that blink of an eye we went from the Wright brothers to moon walking.
To expect warp drive after our first baby steps off the earth is not realistic. We are preparing for our next more confident baby steps. To return to the moon.
It is not todays NASA' fault its only bird is shuttle. Those decisions were made decades ago. Quit beating up NASA for decisions made then.
Shuttle has taught us things not possible any other way. WE learn by doing. We must fly to advance our abilities. Shuttle has deployed deep space probes, it has tought us how to construct in space, it has given us the ablity to repair the hubble. Hubble was launched flawed. Shuttle saved that telescope. Tt has taught us many lessons, some terrible. But no other way to learn them. Everything we learned on shuttle will go into the next vehicles. And that vehicle will have issues.
I could point to dozens of web pages about the benefits of
space exploration, technologies developed and of lives saved because of it, but you can easily find them yourself on google.
Im going to tell you what I think instead, and some comments from others that speak a little more to the heart that I find ring true.
One of my most convincing arguments for space exploration is the analogy that Earth itself is a spacecraft. Everything we learn about how to function and live in space applies directly to our spacehip Earth. How to recycle air, water, how to generate and use power
efficiently, how to grow food in closed ecosystems. All of it is important. All of this can benefit mankind in a world with a fast growing population. Understanding other worlds is how we understand OUR world better, to understand how it formed and where it is going. Its our only home for now.
"We must not cease from exploration, and at the end of all our exploring will be to arrive where we began, and to know it for the first time."
T.S. Eliot
Astronaut Story Musgrave thoughts on the matter.....................
"Why Space, Why Explore?
We have no choice, Sir. It is the Nature of Humanity, it is the Nature of Life
The Globe was created and Life Evolved, and you look at every single cubic millimeter on this Earth, You can go 30,000 feet down below the
Earth surface, You can go 40,000 feet up in the air and Life is There. When you look at the globe down there, you see Teeming Life Everywhere
It is the Power of Life, And maybe I am not just a Human up here, you know. Now Life is Leaping off the Planet. It is heading to other parts of the Solar System, other parts of the Universe
There are those kinds of Pressures. It isn't simply politics, it is not simply technology, it is really not just the essence of humanity, but it is sort of also, you could look at it as maybe the Essence of
Life. I think Teilhard de Chardin, in Phenomenon of Man, I believe he put that incredibly well. So those kind of Forces are at Work. It is the nature of humans to be exploratory and to Push On
Yes, it costs resources and it does cost a lot, and there is a risk, there is a penalty, there is a down side, but Exploration and Pioneering, I think those are the critical things, it is the Essence of what Human Beings are, and that is to try to understand their
Universe and to try to participate in the entire Universe and not just their little Neighborhood" -Story Musgrave
President Bush at the Columbia memorial at JSC................
"The cause of exploration and discovery is not an option we choose, It is a desire written in the human heart."
And at the announcement of new American space policy...........
"Mankind is drawn to the heavens for the same reason we were once drawn into unknown lands and across the open sea. We choose to explore space because doing so improves our lives, and lifts our national
spirit."
WE are all here today because people before us wondered what was beyond the next hill or beyond the horizon.
They did this on ships that they new might not return and on imperfect wings.
We OWE those unborn the same advancements we inherited.
It does not cost that much, and what it returns is priceless.
Well, I might not agree with you on the policy, but I certainly respect the depth of your convictions on the matter. Have a good day. .... Number One, Engage! >>>>>>>>
12 years to get to the moon? Our country has lost its ba11s.
What's the difference, from where you're sitting? It's not like you personally are going to get to go. All you'll ever do, whether we send probes or astronauts, is to look at the pictures and maybe analyze the data. The probes deliver both more cheaply, and in greater quantity.
Getting mankind off this planet is not about ME.
And I always thought when I was younger that I would be living in a Lunar colony by now (ala Robert Heinlein) and expecting my kids to go to Mars....but that future didn't work out...
Unless we are spending $100 billion to ship back 1,000s of container ships with Helium-3, this entire mission is a waste of time.
The war on poverty, welfare, swimming pools in Robert Byrd's state........
The point is we waste a lot of government money in fruitless endeavors, if I can see cool pictures of astronauts on the moon, then that's more than I got out of the aforementioned government programs - and it costs a lot less. The small amount of money we spend in space isn't even worth commenting on, it's part of a much larger budget that has a mountain of pork in it.
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