I can't believe it. I guess now I'll have to vote for Bush in the upcoming elections...Not what I expected, but after reading this report where he evinces strong support for the space program, I've had to switch alliances. As many of you know, I'm a big fan of science fiction, but I don't want to live out my life just reading about space--I'd like to go there, and perhaps teach there!
However, as usual, Bush is a bit muddled in his plans. Fans of Ben Bova or Bob Zubrin Mars Society Founder know that a moonbase is an unnecessary, resulting in little more than an economic sinkhole. In fact, it'd be cheaper to construct a space station orbiting the moon and shuttle astronauts back and forth to the lunar surface than to construct a moon base. There is no water on the moon; I read somewhere that if you were living on the moon, you'd be trying to squeeze water from concrete. Plus, don't plan on going out to your mailbox in your bathrobe; you'll never be separated from your pressurized space suit.
That said, there are some benefits we could reap from the moon, the most important being all those tons of cosmic sediment that have settled across its surface for the last billion years or so. The surface has been pelted with meteorites which contain precious, hard-to-find elements (and possibly even some as-yet undiscovered elements). These same met rocks fall to earth, of course, but our atmosphere burns them to less than a cinder.
A better plan by far is to skip the moon altogether and go straight to Mars. As any reader of this stuff knows, Mars is the only planet (well, there may be a moon or two about Jupiter) that shows any promise of supporting human life. Though some scientists argue the point, most agree that there is water or water ice on Mars, some positing that massive amounts of water exists deep underground. Water, of course, is the key to supporting human life. Theoretically, given enough time and effort, Mars' atmosphere could be changed enough by the introduction of simple plant life to let humans take off their spacesuits, though the air would probably be much thinner than that found at the top of Mt. Everest.
Anyway, flawed as it is, I'm just glad that our president has taken some interest in the future. To me, the future is space exploration, and I will subscribe to the imperialistic conceit that it is our destiny to colonize the planets and reap enormous benefits from their natural resources. Even though ol' Dubya is undoubtedly doing this precisely to split the intellectual vote, I'm buying.
oops
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Obligatory jokes
One of my students emailed me about this, writing: "We can only hope he'll be the first to go."
My first thought was, "What, does the man in the moon have weapons of mass destruction?"
:)
China and contracts = moon base
Of course, this is probably all about China's plans for a moon base more so than altruistic motives of space exploration. Think of the recent manned Chinese flight into space. Then imagine that the administration probably heard about the second flight planned for 2005 and decided that a Chinese moon base in 2010 might be a possibility.
That, of course, and the mighty dollars that will be distributed to defense and other high tech industries who will be getting the contracts.
Moon base
I don't really care what the motives behind the decision are; I'm ready to support an ambitious space program regardless. In my estimation, there is simply too much to be gained from space exploration. The old excuse that we need the money at home is simply ridiculous; even if we cancelled the space program altogether, none of this money would find its way to the poor.
The only way I'm going to experience my dream of travelling to another planet or visiting space is if programs like this get off the ground NOW. I more or less imagine Mars (I don't like the idea of wasting time at the moon, but oh well) to be the next great frontier, and I'm almost to the point of adopting my friend Erin Banning's approach to get there. Erin dropped a promising career in journalism to return to school and pursue as astrobiology degree; I bet he's elated now that the president is showing interest in the space program, even if it is highly superficial and politically motivated.
re: Moon base
Don't get me wrong. I'm all for a space program. Let's go! Thought I wanted to be an astronaut when I was younger :) Still, if I won the lottery, I don't think I'd be willing to buy a ticket on the Russian space tourism flights lol.
Moon Bat
Bush is just now getting on board with NASA's 25+ year old plans for Mars landings. Whoopee. Unsurprisingly, playing up the romance of manned space flight to Mars is great for national chest-thumping & flag-waving, but it's a stupid and irresponsible use of resources. Scientifically, we get much more bang for our buck by doing what we've done with the Spirit rover--unmanned exploratory vehicles. Most of his other "scientific" policy proposals (like, say, those described here) make me want to weep for the scientific community in this country.
If I were Sean O'Keefe, I'd want the leader of the Religious Right to keep his ham-hands out of NASA's business. I have no faith that BushCo won't screw the space program up for the next fifteen years with idiot proposals that end up killing more astronauts needlessly, and turning public opinion against extraterrestrial exploration.