back to the moon?

from reuters today

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Buoyed by a successful landing on Mars by a
robot explorer, President Bush plans a major announcement on space
policy next week that envisions sending Americans back to the moon and
ultimately to Mars, officials and congressional aides said on
Thursday.

Nearly a year after the shuttle Columbia exploded on re-entering the
atmosphere, sending NASA into a deep spell of melancholy, Bush is
expected to outline a sweeping vision of U.S. space leadership.

He is expected to propose a new lunar initiative leading to a
permanent American presence on the moon and a mission to Mars in the
long term, said the sources, who asked to remain unidentified.

Speaking to reporters with Bush in Florida, White House Press
Secretary Scott McClellan said that after the Columbia tragedy Bush
made clear his desire for U.S. space exploration to continue.

"The president directed his administration to do a comprehensive
review of our space policy, including our priorities and the future
direction of the program, and the president will have more to say on
it next week," McClellan said, declining to reveal any details in
advance.

Bush is scheduled to be in Mexico on Monday and Tuesday so any
announcement is not expected before Wednesday.

Congressional sources said the administration was also considering
setting up a more streamlined hierarchy for guiding the government's
wide-ranging space programs and coordinating its research and
development.

Under this scenario, there could be more exchanges of technology
between NASA and the Defense Department.

Some members of Congress are worried about ensuring the United States
remains the global leader in space exploration.

"If we don't do it, somebody else will," said Tennessee Rep. Bart
Gordon, a ranking Democrat on the House Science Committee. "The
Chinese, the Europeans and the Japanese all have the goal of going to
the moon. Certainly we don't want to wake up and see that they have a
base there before we do."

NEW TECHNOLOGIES AND ENERGY SOURCES

The new space plan was spearheaded in large part by NASA administrator
Sean O'Keefe, who was appointed by Bush to restore credibility to an
agency plagued by budget troubles, including billions of dollars in
cost overruns at the international space station.

Vice President Dick Cheney was also involved in the policy
development, along with other senior Bush advisers. The administration
was said to see the initiative as an important national security
measure and experts said it could lead to new technologies and
potential new sources of energy.

Bush's father, former President George Bush, had proposed a mission to
Mars that was scuttled because of concerns over its high cost. The
younger Bush likewise faces budgetary constraints including a budget
deficit expected to top $500 billion this year alone.

Experts say a moon mission could be done without a significant
increase in the budget by spreading the cost over seven to 10 years.

"You can use the existing infrastructure and be back on the moon in 5
to 10 years with a modest investment. You don't have to double the
NASA budget," said Paul Spudis, a planetary scientist at the Johns
Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory in Baltimore, Maryland.

Bush's election-year announcement is likely to face challenges from
fiscal conservatives and Democrats who want him to focus on domestic
issues like education and health care. But the ambitious proposal will
strike a chord with some lawmakers.

Experts said the goal should be to set up a research base on the moon
to test technologies that would be useful on a mission to Mars.

"The idea is to go to Mars. And the way you get to Mars is you go to
the moon and you practice three days from home. It's the equivalent of
climbing Mount Rainier and preparing for Mount Everest," said Howard
McCurdy, a space-policy expert at American University in Washington.

"steven" wrote in message ...
Sorry to be cinical but I will believe this when it happens.


Very true. Read my other posts on this. Where will NASA get the money from
when it can't even support the ISS correctly and also has to pump money into
the Russian space programme as at present the USA has no capability to
launch astronauts into space!! What a mess.

Martin

I will join the cynical camp wrt Bush's intentions. This out of the blue
announcement costs nothing to his re-election campaign. It does however
re-launch the discussion of space programmes in the public domain and that
can only be good.

You mean you think we've been there before??

D g

Perhaps it is a defacto way of subsidising the space station. Seeing as a
space station would in all likelyhood be used as part of a moon landing,
some of the funds would be diverted to it. It would probably make the SS
look like less of a lemon.

cheers Peter


"Martin" wrote in message
...

"steven" wrote in message ...
Sorry to be cinical but I will believe this when it happens.


Very true. Read my other posts on this. Where will NASA get the money
from
when it can't even support the ISS correctly and also has to pump money
into
the Russian space programme as at present the USA has no capability to
launch astronauts into space!! What a mess.

Martin

"peter berrett" wrote in message
u...

Perhaps it is a defacto way of subsidising the space station. Seeing as a
space station would in all likelyhood be used as part of a moon landing,
some of the funds would be diverted to it. It would probably make the SS
look like less of a lemon.

cheers Peter


Why do they need the ISS for that? They managed to get to the moon in 1969
without a Space Station. And anyway the USA could have paid for a Mir 2 for
a fraction of the price.

I hope George Bush is not pulling our chain here though. To be fair he has
certainly been a bold President, if not always universally liked. Problem is
even if Bush gets his way with Congress and he wins the next election, when
Hiliary Clinton wins the election after that the whole thing will probably
get dumped.

Martin