Using The Shuttles External Fuel Tank In Our Return to The Moon and

It is not so much that NASA does not want to, it is the DOD, Congress and
the US Government in general. NASA originally had over 100 goals for the
STS, but that was reduced to 3. If you ask anyone at NASA, they will be
happy to build colonies etc.

The announcement next week is just that, and announcement. At this point,
there is no funding attatched to it and until there is, it is really
meaningless. I am writing my masters thesis on developing a permenant human
mining operation on the moon that would lead into other things such as fuel
development, a large telescope or group of telescopes, and ultimately space
tourism. After attending conferences on these topics and seeing that the
only NASA people showing up are the ones who pay themselves because Congress
will not approve the travel funds, it is plain to see that the real steps
forward will be by an international cooperation of foreign countries which
the US will be among the last to join. At the ILEWG in Hawaii in November
2003, the Chineese were not even granted visas by our Govt to come, so we
did a phone conference with them and they were asking for America's help,
but we will not give it to them. Not because NASA is to stuborn, but
because the GOVT is to stuborn.

And that Billions that NASA syphons is not that much, less than 2% of our
national budget. Lewis and Clark used a higher percentage of the national
budget, and they only went 2000 miles in canoes, we are going to other
bodies that are at least 250,000 miles away and in vehicles taht cost
exponentially more than a canoe. Lewis and Clark also lost more than 100 of
their team members on their excursion, and the US has only lost 17 in 30+
years, so is that really all that bad?

Kevin
AOL: stubek
Earth weighs 6,588,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 tons