Funding for moon, Mars projects promised

[Robbien]

PAM EASTON

Associated Press

SPACE CENTER, Houston - NASA's new administrator and Texas Republican Rep. Tom DeLay said Tuesday the space agency will have the necessary funding to implement President Bush's vision to send astronauts back to the moon and to Mars.

"We have the money to do good things," said Michael Griffin, who has visited at least seven of NASA's centers since he was appointed in April. During a two-day visit at the home of human spaceflight, he spoke with astronauts, flight directors and other top administrators.

Griffin said the agency has received a steady flow of funding that when adjusted for inflation is comparable to the funding the agency had when it first sent astronauts to the moon during the Apollo program of the 1960s and early 1970s.

. . .

DeLay said NASA is a priority - even in a time of war and tightening budgets. "We will provide the funding necessary to get us where we want to go," the House majority leader said. "And hopefully we can do it in an expedited manner."

http://www.ohio.com/mld/ohio/news/11782842.htm

[merwin]

1. 'Get us where we want to go'? You mean, death star, right?

[Roland99]

3. "In an expedited matter."

That speaks volumes there.

[Ian David]

28. Moon is a great plass for a "Mass Driver" weapon n/t

[stevedeshazer]

2. Bush: Lost In Space

[lonestarnot]

11. He's planning on ducking out soon....LOL

[The_Casual_Observer]

4. What happened to Osama?

[darkism]

20. Him and Zarqawi are hiding out in the lunar caves, haven't you heard?

[TalkingDog]

5. They just need a safe colony away from the burning cinder that's left

after they totally f*ck everything up. After that, they and their perfect Aryan children will come back to a new green planet free from poor people, brown people and homo-sect-shules.

Of course they forget they'll need lackies. Maybe their deformed and unattractive children can do those jobs.

[phaseolus]

6. Mixed feelings about this

Being an engineer, I look back on the old Apollo days as an inspiring time when our accomplishments in space were a factor in why we led the world -- technologically, we were at the top of our game. World class. The men who put us on the moon were heroes, and I was inspired to learn what I could about math and science by what we did.

I'd like to see a strong space program to help lead us back to world classity (okay, I write like an engineer sometimes,) and create thousands of high paying jobs in the process. But with trolls like DeLay on board, and given other recent news reports, you know that part of the reason for this is they want to militarize space. (Read: start a new arms race, i.e. throw money down a rathole.)

:mad:

[Robbien]

13. It would be nice if this were a real science program

But knowing the cabal we have in the WH, this program is just another scheme to give away taxpayer dollars to GOP friendly contractors. As in Iraq, the contractors will take the dollars and not deliver the goods.

[Jack Rabbit]

7. For Bush, all promises are pie-crust promises

From the motion picture Mary Poppins (1964):

Easily made; easily broken.

[Rosco T.]

8. I have no problem with returning to the moon and on to mars...

.. I have major problems that it's being tarnished by Chimp sucking on it..

[number6]

9. send Bush to the Moon, one way ticket ...

:smoke:

[obxhead]

10. I would find the Sun to be a far better location :)

[VegasWolf]

12. Does Bush know that the Moon and Mars are not on Earth? n/t

[IndianaGreen]

14. Bush idea of the space program is to build the Death Star

Rather than wasting more money on the manned space program, and on risky manned missions to the Moon or Mars, we should put our money on scientific robotic missions to the inner planets and to the edges of the solar system. We also need to do something about Hubble!

[MiniMe]

15. And where is the funding coming from???

The country is in debt up to the eyeballs, we have an unnecessary war that we are spending billions on. Is the man (I use the term loosely) TRYING to bankrupt the country?

[truthisfreedom]

17. well, he does have the alternative minimum tax...

[Hapameli]

19. This is their big gamble.. bankrupting the country to be the first to own

space. Then, they'll privitize it and make themselves obscenely more wealthy than they are now. Tax dollars paying for the R&D of course.

Problem with letting these morons do this is that they screw up everything they touch. One mess up and we leave space crap everywhere, creating a minefield surrounding the earth and ending the possibility of ever leaving the planet again. They're willing to gamble all of our lives for the big payout.

edit: There are also valuable metals to be mined from Mars and the moon according to some authors. On a documentary I saw on Free Speech TV, someone said they wanted to have manned mining colonies on Mars by 2015 to 2020.

[daleo]

16. Bush wants the space program to go to Mars, but only metaphorically

Mars, the God of War.

[The_Casual_Observer]

18. If wishes were horses then beggars would ride.

[DeepModem Mom]

21. What a load of Houston pork! Meanwhile, scientific exploration...

of space, at lower cost, is endangered by budget cuts. Greedy SOBs.

[BiggJawn]

22. But not ONE damn PENNY for Amtrak. Pity Boeing doesn't make trains.

There'd be BILLIONS going into new trains and tracks if Northrup, Boeing, and Lockheed were in the railroad game like they are aerospace.

[Bridget Burke]

23. I grew up reading science fiction & I still love the idea of space travel.

Even though the steaming swamps of Venus & the Martian-haunted poetic ruins beside the old canals are no longer part of the picture. But the new "thrust" is towards the militarization of space. And so much could be learned from unmanned scientific missions--which cost less.

Tom Delay's approval is so inspiring! Of course, the Johnson Space Center is in his district.

[cap]

24. NASA is being militarized..

this money is not for space exploration.

[cap]

25. Bush promises us the moon...

gee, we've heard that before!

[doodadem]

26. I love the line from Kucinich on this

"Well, it's the only place they haven't looked for WMD's yet!"

I'm a SciFi fanatic, and love the idea of star treking around the universe. But it is NOT a military option. It is exploration, to seek out new civilizations (not destroy them!) Furthermore, that type of future is made possible when the Earth is no longer ruled by money. The "accumulation of material wealth", to quote Captain Picard, is irrelevant once everyone has replicators to be able to produce whatever they need. You want to solve all the world's problems? Work on THAT.

[Mugsy]

27. "We have the money..." We do??????

Unless he has a leprechaun in his pocket and a pot of gold under his bed that no one knows about, how exactly do "we have the money to do great things"??? Aren't we now pushing $7 TRILLION DOLLARS in debt?

If we do, then here is a suggestion for their first "great thing": fund Medicare.