One cheer for the President's space plan

> Quick take on Bush's space initiative -- Evaluating a space proposal,
> we should look for vision, timetable, and funding. On this basis, I
> can say, "One cheer for the President's space plan."
>
> The goals and ambitions are laudable, leading to one cheer. The
> timetable is a joke, and the funding is a joke.

Ambitions are modest, which is good. Modest ambitions are easier to
achieve. Any fool can say "let's go to Mars", but the project has to
survive changes of administration, changes in Congress, changes in the
economy and national priorities. Apollo survived *ONLY* because it was
a proxy for war with the Commies. Space enthusiasts need to get over
Apollo - it was an anomaly and it is never coming back. Attainable
goals will be attained. Pie in the sky fantasies will remain
fantasies. The timetable reflects reality, and the funding is adequate
to the task (large amounts of funding will be freed up as ISS nears
completion, and diverted to CEV).

> This plan could touch off a space race, and in that case, the plan is
> one of how to lose a space race.

There is ZERO chance of a space race. There is no cold war. It was a
historical anomaly. It's not coming back, and that's good - the cold
war caused enormous suffering.

> (A serious version of this plan would say, "Mars by 2020. NASA gets an
> immediate 60% raise in funding, with two more raises in 2010 and
> 2015.")

This plan would die the instant a new president was elected, probably
sooner, at the first congressional election. More money pissed down
the drain in search of unrealistic fantasies. If we'd followed the
Bush II plan after Apollo (and this plan *is* the logical follow on to
Apollo) we'd have a moonbase by now and probably flags and footprints
on Mars, with realistic plans for a Mars base. As is, everyone wants a
full court press for their pet project, so we get overambitious plans
that are politically unviable. This plan is politically viable, and
that is reason enough to support it. We've wasted 30 years on fantasy.
Let's do some real exploration, which means slow, careful, steady
progress, not revolutionary programs designed to show our superiority
over the commies.

> The President, while getting deserved credit for vision, should fix
> the timetable and funding in his plan. Absent that, we might conclude
> that the first human on Mars will be Chinese or Russian. Under this
> plan, they could beat us to Mars with 15 years to spare!

Good for them. Of course, there's exactly zero chance that they'll go
to Mars, because they don't have an exploration for exploration's sake
culture (either one). The only reason the Soviets ever went into space
in the first place was propaganda, and the only reason we went to the
moon was to rain on their parade. The side benefits were nice, but
there's a reason that of the 12 people who walked on the moon, only one
was a scientist.

This is the first thing to come out of the Bush White House that I
support 100%. Excellent job.

......Andrew