U.S. Planning Base on Moon To Prepare for Trip to Mars

Washington Post ^ | March 26, 2006 | Guy Gugliotta

[Names Ash Housewares]

Better yet........ moongirls!

[zarf]

Good news. Time to dream again.

Our nation needs this.....more kids will want to be in the sciences.

[zarf]

Another bold initiative by Bush.

Good on him.

[Southack]

Cool!

[King Prout]

best way to build interplanetary vessels on the moon is in sections, launch and assemble them in orbit.

best way to launch sections: electromagnetic mass-driver

bonus: that same mass-driver could easily be used to lob large rocks at terrestrial enemies. boom, with no radiation... and, if done cleverly, with quite a bit of plausible deniability.

let us go back to the moon, please.

[KneelBeforeZod]

do you really want to imagine a world without velcro?

MORE FUNDING FOR SPACE EXPLORATION NOW!!!!

[Mark was here]

When all the money raided from the Social Security Trust Fund is replaced, and the raiding has stopped, then we can talk about funding NASA.

If someone gave you money you knew was stolen, would you be moral in spending it?

[Left2Right]

No so fast puny earthlings...

[Shalom Israel]

President Bush in 2004 announced to great fanfare plans to build a new spaceship, get back to the moon by 2020 and travel on to Mars after that.

Pyramid-building is not dead.

[6SJ7]

bonus: that same mass-driver could easily be used to lob large rocks at terrestrial enemies.

Sounds like the outline of Heinlein's book, "The Moon is a Harsh Mistress".

[biff]

This Mars crap is just that, crap. We as a nation now, more than ever, need to carefully balance the returns vs costs. Just what will a trip to Mars cost and what will it give us in return? To find out that maybe, just maybe a few million yrs ago some form of life existed there? A few single cell creatures that have been imbedded in rock?
To me, life on other planets is of no concern unless it is shown to have been intelligent and that ain't gonna happen.
To be honest, I could give a damn.

[Knitebane]

To be honest, I could give a damn.

Please turn off your computer, since you don't give a damn about the miracle of modern microelectronics that the US space program created.

[Caipirabob]

Amateur economic modeling via societal simulators show that you cannot sustain a long term space exploration program with the amount of debt this nation carries unless steps are made to reduce the burden of debt. The weight of the continually increasing debt would cripple the economy eventually. The space program would inevitably collapse as the society deteriorates.

I'm all for space exploration, but if we are to venture into space, our society needs to be structured to take the emphasis of subsidizing socialism and geared towards promoting technological advancement. That would begin with education, and then step through emphasis on research via universities and then so on. All the while, social subsidies programs would need to be eliminated en masse.

Today's cultural and political climate is hardly aligned to the requirements necessary to promote a successful space exploration program.

Yet I heartily applaud those who would promote it. I would even support it, given that the right overtures are made on all fronts of the issue.

[manwiththehands]

President Bush in 2004 announced to great fanfare plans to build a new spaceship, get back to the moon by 2020 and travel on to Mars after that.

"We can fight a war, spend money on social programs like there is no tomorrow, run our deficits into our great-grandchildren's future ... and we can even go to Mars!"

The "Great Society" Part II.

[bkepley]

--This Mars crap is just that, crap. We as a nation now, more than ever, need to carefully balance the returns vs costs. Just what will a trip to Mars cost and what will it give us in return?

In the long run, insurance.

[KevinDavis]