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Bush to Announce Mission to Mars, Moon
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| imokruok |
Finally! Federal spending I can get behind! :D
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Bush to Announce Missions to Mars, Moon
By SCOTT LINDLAW
Associated Press Writer
PALM BEACH GARDENS, Fla. (AP) -- President Bush will announce plans next week to send Americans to Mars and back to the moon and to establish a long-term human presence on the moon, senior administration officials said Thursday night.
Bush doesn't plan to send Americans to Mars anytime soon; rather, he envisions preparing for the mission more than a decade from now, one official said.
The president also wants to build a permanent space station on the moon.
The initiatives are part of a broad, new commitment to manned space flight, three officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
They said Bush wants to aggressively reinvigorate the space program, which has been demoralized by a series of setbacks, including the space shuttle disaster last February that killed seven astronauts.
The officials said Bush's announcement would come in the middle of next week.
Bush has been expected to announce a major space initiative, and some thought he do so at the 100th-anniversary celebration of the Wright brother's first flight last month in North Carolina.
Instead, he only pledged the United States would continue to lead the world in aviation.
House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, R-Texas, has called for an expansion of the U.S. space program, including a return to the moon.
McClellan spoke with reporters accompanying Bush on a trip to Tennessee and Florida.
Copyright 2004 Associated Press. All rights reserved.
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| smokeape |
Yeah, we found signs of life on Mars...
{{{smoke}}} |
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| NeoPhono |
| Two words...bad ass!!! I wanna live on the moon! |
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| Yoepus |
I hope Bush will appropriate enough funds for a "giant laser" for the moon base... it just won't be a real moon base without one..:(
:p |
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| imokruok |
Hey Yoepus, there are two flags on Mars. One is yours. :) Actually, there are Russian and European flags on Mars. They're just a little scratched up and burnt.
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| failsafe |
| anyone ever see that movie with eddie murphy where he gets a whole whack of money and has to spend it all in a very short period of time? I think dubya must have seen that one too. I think he's living it right now. A mission to mars has to be the quickest way to raise the already staggering deficit. |
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| DaveSaenz |
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/w...anguage=printer
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AP Poll: U.S. Tepid on Bush's Space Plans
By WILL LESTER
The Associated Press
Monday, January 12, 2004; 2:50 PM
WASHINGTON - President Bush's plan to build a space station on the moon and eventually send astronauts to Mars hasn't grabbed the public's imagination, an Associated Press poll suggests.
More than half in the poll said it would be better to spend the money on domestic programs rather than on space research.
Asked whether they favored the United States expanding the space program the way Bush proposes, people were evenly split, with 48 percent favoring the idea and the same number opposing it, according to the poll conducted for the AP by Ipsos-Public Affairs.
Most respondents said they generally support continuing to send humans into space.
However, given the choice of spending money on programs like education and health care or on space research, 55 percent said they wanted domestic programs. Based on previous estimates for a moon-Mars initiative, the space cost would run in the hundreds of billions of dollars.
"You can't have a war, cut taxes, have the economy in a garbage pail and spend billions going into space," said Dallas Hodgins, a 76-year-old retired University of Michigan researcher from Flint, Mich. "How are they going to pay for all this? I don't see how it's morally justifiable. In Flint, there isn't a school roof that doesn't leak."
On Wednesday, Bush is scheduled to spell out details of his proposal to use an outpost on the moon as a jumping off point for more remote destinations such as Mars or asteroids.
Those most likely to favor the plan to expand space exploration were men, young adults, people with more education and those with higher incomes.
It made a difference who was said to be behind the plan. When half the poll sample was asked about a "Bush administration" plan to expand space exploration instead of the "United States" plan, opposition increased.
Just over half of Democrats' opposed the plan by "the United States." Once it was identified as a "Bush administration" plan, Democrats opposed it by a 2-to-1 margin.
Some have suggested that space exploration could be expanded more inexpensively using robots instead of human astronauts to explore the moon or other planets. The AP-Ipsos poll indicated that option was popular, with 57 percent favoring exploring the moon and Mars with robots and 38 percent saying humans.
Despite the mixed response about the moon-Mars proposal, general support for space exploration remains strong.
Even after people were reminded of a shuttle accident that killed seven astronauts last February, three-fourths said the United States should continue to send humans into space.
Administration officials say the president will call for the retirement of the space shuttles by the end of this decade to make way for the next generation of spacecraft.
For many people, the proposal to go back to the moon and beyond arouses the same sense of exploration and adventure the space program captured in its earliest days.
"I think it's a great idea," said Paula Steiner, 52 of Jacksonville, Fla. "It's human nature. There's always been an instinct in human beings to explore to see what's going on elsewhere."
She said she thinks it's "very important" for the United States to be an international leader in space exploration.
"Part of it's mindless patriotism, I suppose," she said, chuckling. "I remember in the early days when we were racing with the Russians. I'd still prefer that we be first."
Steiner's view is shared by most Americans.
Three-fourths in the poll said they thought it was important for the United States to be the leading country in the world in the exploration of space. Still, only 29 percent of those polled said it was "very important."
The AP-Ipsos poll of 1,000 adults was taken Friday through Sunday and had a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 3 percentage points.
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| occrider |
| Yea domestic spending. Cut the deficits below 2% of GDP (I'm too cynical to assume a surplus), finish this whole Iraq thingy, keep the economy moving, and then I'll give my stamp of approval for the war on mars. Unless of course ... the money is going to come out of defense spending or something of the sort. |
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| failsafe |
Yah I agree, you can only have on major thing going on. Finish your daddys war. Then blast off to mars, unless there's come country that Jeb doesn't like. If so then attack them with no cause first, then go to mars.
(WHAT THE kind of name is Jeb anyway?) |
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| LiquidX |
| WTF is running around Bush's brain. Ok.. I find astronomical things very interesting, I would love to see this mission to mars and the moon happen on my lifetime, perhaps .. NOW!!.. but, COME UP! wake the heck up! ( Im been agressive sorry ). How much money have we spend on sending those robots that have failed allready. The technology is not there yet, not until a brilliang and very secure project is reached id probably agree, but not now. Not when there are plenty of other important things to do. It would have sounded nicer on the Clinton era, when this country had a surplus++. Now we dont really have that much of a luxury, but yeah.. the US can give itself that luxury, but when it comes to just puking money like that, I just wont agree. First things first. Improve the technology, fixe the Iraq problem, give the US back to the golden times ( try at least ), lower unemployment, fix the social security/health care issues/and retirement. Until then, its not appropiatte to commit to something of this caliber. |
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| MisterOpus1 |
| quote: | Originally posted by LiquidX
WTF is running around Bush's brain. Ok.. I find astronomical things very interesting, I would love to see this mission to mars and the moon happen on my lifetime, perhaps .. NOW!!.. but, COME UP! wake the heck up! ( Im been agressive sorry ). How much money have we spend on sending those robots that have failed allready. The technology is not there yet, not until a brilliang and very secure project is reached id probably agree, but not now. Not when there are plenty of other important things to do. It would have sounded nicer on the Clinton era, when this country had a surplus++. Now we dont really have that much of a luxury, but yeah.. the US can give itself that luxury, but when it comes to just puking money like that, I just wont agree. First things first. Improve the technology, fixe the Iraq problem, give the US back to the golden times ( try at least ), lower unemployment, fix the social security/health care issues/and retirement. Until then, its not appropiatte to commit to something of this caliber. |
You stole my thunder. I completely agree. I'd love to see this program take off, but now is not the time given our circumstances.
Almost sounds like a wag the dog scenario - just another distraction to take our minds off Iraq/economy/no jobs/etc. |
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