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Grubble Grubble
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Tuesday, January 20, 2004 :::
rant
Bush wants us to go to Mars. Oh joyous. (Note the obvious lack of enthusiasm)
In his speech outlining a comprehensive plan to first return to the moon and then use the moon as a base of operations to send a manned mission to Mars, Bush has, in effect, put all our space eggs in one basket.
The staggering costs of accomplishing this will be spread out over 30 years, but those costs will still constitute the lion’s share of NASA’s budget. NASA is also now forced to completely reorganize to meet this Herculean goal. What this means is that current NASA projects will be put by the wayside.
The most visible (pun intended) project to meet its doom thanks to Dubya is the Hubble Telescope. For those living in caves, Hubble has revolutionized the study of Astronomy. We were able to see the Universe in a new light thanks to the images sent back by Hubble. Scientists estimate Hubble will survive until 2007-8 without servicing missions.
But the big question is: Do we need a man on mars? Never mind even that. Do we need a manned colony on the Moon? The answer is an emphatic NO.
I am normally a proponent of space exploration, but with our current budget crisis, thanks once again to the man who is bringing you the all new mission to Mars, this is the height of hubris. We cannot afford this new agenda and we are not ready for it.
If you think about it, Bush has set us back to the cold-war days. Now, however, instead of racing the Soviets to the Moon, we are racing the Chinese, who have stated that they are gearing up to send a manned mission in the foreseeable future. This is the hidden political agenda he does not want John Q. Public to know about.
Seems it is not good enough for him to fight a protracted, and un-necessary, war here on Earth. Nor does it sooth his savage beast to seek out terrorists on terra-firma. Maybe we should start looking for little green men. They should be about as easy to find as the much vaunted Iraqi Weapons of Mass Destruction.
/rant
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