Bush's space plan

On Jan 9, 2004, at 2:04 PM, Arthur P. Smith wrote:

>> This group refers to itself as "Spacesettlers", and it irks me why the
>> populous here doesn't want to take advantage of another direction in
>> space
>> travel, or space colonization when its staring you in the face,
>> instead of
>> anguishing in low earth orbit for another 20 years.
>>

Some of us think the nation would be better served supporting large
numbers of people in low-Earth orbit (presumably tourists at first, but
NASA supports the airline industry and they fly a lot of tourists)
rather than putting a very small number of people very far away at
great taxpayer expense.

That said, the Moon mission (if it actually happens, note that the date
is AFTER Bush won't be president, for sure) could be very useful if it
focuses on developing better Earth-to-orbit transportation and using
lunar materials. If a solar power satellite were used for power at
night that would be great too, but the Bush administration really likes
nukes so they'll probably go that way.

If the dinosaurs had a space program, they'd still be here.

Al Globus
CSC at NASA Ames Research Center
www.nas.nasa.gov/~globus/home.html