The President's Space Initiative Speech

In article et, "Steven P.
McNicoll" writes:

"Jay Honeck" wrote in message
news:P8xNb.72880$8H.111891@attbi_s03...

I can see why Federal spending on a rain forest in Iowa would be
unconstitutional -- it clearly is -- but space exploration?


Do you find a provision for space exploration in the Constitution?


Same place Jefferson found authorization for Lewis and Clark.

Don

--
Wm. Donald (Don) Tabor Jr., DDS
PP-ASEL
Chesapeake, VA - CPK, PVG

"Wdtabor" wrote in message
...

Same place Jefferson found authorization for Lewis and Clark.


What place was that?

"Wdtabor" wrote:
No, we simply came to understand (some of us) that manned
space travel is unconscionably wasteful until we get past
rocket ship technology, which may take decades.
--

It will never happen if we do not create the need for it by reaching
the limits of rocket technology.

I submit that we are already at the practical limits. One of the things
that make a manned trip to Mars so expensive is the long exposure of
astronauts to conditions in space. Tremendous amounts of r&d will be
required to protect them from the physiological effects of zero gravity
and radiation.
--
Dan
C172RG at BFM
(remove pants to reply by email)

"Mike Rapoport" wrote:

Jay, you have to weigh the cost and the benefits. It doesn't make any sense
to go now, the technology is not ready.

The goal drives the technology.

The whole idea is election year politics, its pathetic.

And going to the moon was cold war politics. Would America
or the world be better off if we hadn't gone to the moon and
the Soviets had?

Politicians are driven by .... politics.... (surprise) and
they control the purse. If Bush thinks he gets a political
advantage by appealing to those who support the space
program, then it's a good sign, as far as I'm concerned.
His opponents need to decide whether he's right or wrong.
Personally, I think he's right and hope his opponents do
too. I spend a percentage of my money on my current needs,
a percentage investing for my future needs and a percentage
on my dreams. I think the country should do the same. When
you give up the dreams and frontiers, you stagnate.


Todd Pattist
(Remove DONTSPAMME from address to email reply.)
___
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"Jay Honeck" wrote:
One of the most laughable parts of Bush's speech was when
he said that a human base on the moon would make space
exploration cheaper? Yep folks, according to the president,
a moon base is going to SAVE us some money.
Oooookaaay.

The science behind interplanetary space travel dictates that
a moon base WILL make space exploration cheaper.

The main cost of space exploration is in the booster system
required to escape Earth's gravity. Launching from the
moon's lesser gravitational pull is much easier, requires
smaller rockets, and is thus much cheaper.

Everything launched from the moon will have to be launched from Earth
first. Anything going to Mars will have to escape gravity twice.

We will have to fund two spaceports, one of which will have to be
resupplied by rocket ships. How is this going to be cheaper?
--
Dan
C172RG at BFM
(remove pants to reply by email)

"C J Campbell" wrote in message ...
This thread is incredibly funny.

We got the Dems worrying about the deficit and saying that a big government
program is bad.

We got the Republicans saying that the deficit is not so bad and that big
government is the answer to space travel.

OK, let me throw in a third alternative - chuck the government altogether,
and let Burt Rutan come up with a way to do it backed by private investors
and some corporate sponsorship logos on the side of the spacecraft!

"plumb bob" wrote:

How can we fall behind the Chinese because they are going to the moon? We
already did that almost 35 years ago!

In ten years, if the Chinese can send a man to the moon, and
we still can't, the average observer will say we're behind.

Todd Pattist
(Remove DONTSPAMME from address to email reply.)
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Make a commitment to learn something from every flight.
Share what you learn.

"Todd Pattist" wrote:
In ten years, if the Chinese can send a man to the moon, and
we still can't, the average observer will say we're behind.

Which is exactly why we went in the first place, and why the Chinese are
talking about going now: for the propaganda value.
--
Dan
C172RG at BFM
(remove pants to reply by email)

"Todd Pattist" wrote in message
...
"Mike Rapoport" wrote:

Jay, you have to weigh the cost and the benefits. It doesn't make any
sense
to go now, the technology is not ready.

The goal drives the technology.

The whole idea is election year politics, its pathetic.

And going to the moon was cold war politics. Would America
or the world be better off if we hadn't gone to the moon and
the Soviets had?

Politicians are driven by .... politics.... (surprise) and
they control the purse. If Bush thinks he gets a political
advantage by appealing to those who support the space
program, then it's a good sign, as far as I'm concerned.
His opponents need to decide whether he's right or wrong.
Personally, I think he's right and hope his opponents do
too. I spend a percentage of my money on my current needs,
a percentage investing for my future needs and a percentage
on my dreams. I think the country should do the same. When
you give up the dreams and frontiers, you stagnate.

But you have to have the money to start with. This country does not have
the money to pay for current or future needs much less dreams. Get rid of
the deficit then you can go play Star Trek.




Todd Pattist
(Remove DONTSPAMME from address to email reply.)
___
Make a commitment to learn something from every flight.
Share what you learn.

"Jay Honeck" wrote in message
news:hPiNb.67808$na.39439@attbi_s04...
I caught most of it -- and it was fantastic! To hear a president
actually
promoting manned space travel, and laying out a plausible, doable plan to
get our space program back on track, was a breath of fresh air on a bleak
and dreary January day.

Hell, maybe we'll set foot on Mars before I die after all?

I often tell my children how the U.S. once led the world in space travel,
and of how my generation grew up with the excitement and national pride of
putting a man on the moon. Until today, I would also sadly explain to
them
how we had squandered our future, and abandoned the dream...

Well, President Bush has today put us back on track. As pilots (I like to
call what we do "extremely low earth orbit... :-) let's get the phone
calls
and emails rolling to our elected representatives, and tell 'em to get on
board this new initiative!

Let's see: "Congress shall have the power to promote and fund space
travel"...that must be the 247th Amendment; my copy is outdated -- it stops
at the 236th Amendment.