The President's Space Initiative Speech

Do YOU want to pay for it? How about privatizing all the airports to pay
for it? A $5 gallon tax on fuel? There really is no upside to doing this.
We are already overspending at a rate that is unsustainable.

Mike
MU-2


"Jay Honeck" wrote in message
news:HMmNb.69238$xy6.127599@attbi_s02...
Unmanned space programs accomplish much more at a fraction of the
cost.

Everyone seems to think of this as a zero-sum game, that we can EITHER
spend
it on manned exploration, OR on un-manned exploration.

Trouble is, NASA's budget is controlled by politicians who respond to
their
constituents. Unmanned exploration is about as exciting as studying for
the
instrument written, and excites precisely ZERO enthusiasm (the current,
rare -- and extraordinary -- Mars lander notwithstanding.).

Witness the failed "faster, cheaper, better" strategy that was forced upon
NASA by continual budget cut-backs -- cut-backs that were forced upon them
because their programs were lifeless, computerized, and boring. Without
"man" in the equation, NASA is just another yawn.

I submit that if we don't give NASA the mission of manned space
exploration,
their budget will continue to be whittled away, and even LESS will be
accomplished in the long run. Man belongs in space.
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

In article . net,
"Mike Rapoport" wrote:

Do YOU want to pay for it? How about privatizing all the airports to pay
for it? A $5 gallon tax on fuel? There really is no upside to doing
this.
We are already overspending at a rate that is unsustainable.

I'm willing to pay for a real space program. I'd rather pay
for that than a lot of the stupid stuff Congress jams into
the budget that just ****es our money away.

--
Bob Noel

"Mike Rapoport" wrote in message
ink.net...
Do YOU want to pay for it? How about privatizing all the airports to pay
for it? A $5 gallon tax on fuel? There really is no upside to doing
this.
We are already overspending at a rate that is unsustainable.

Actually, we've been spending that way for over 70 years; this is just the
logical culmination of statism and the welfare state.

In article . net, "Mike
Rapoport" writes:


Agreed. Unmanned space programs accomplish much more at a fraction of the
cost.

And they fail to accomplish the one really important thing, to find and stretch
the limits of mankind, no matter how much we put into them.

Besides, the trip to Mars is already paid for.

The benefits we have already received from better weather forcasting and
communications alone put us in debt to NASA for a couple of trillion so far.
How much is GPS worth over the next 50 years?

Manned flight is really just a perk they have more than earned for the benefits
that have accrued to us through serendipity from earlier Buck Rogers stuff.

Don

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

"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.

I think Bush is comatose. You see him as a genius. Therefore one of us is a
fool and I think that you are it.

Bush has no problem spending your taxes like there is no tomorrow -
especially to win votes. Last week he was pandering to illegal immigrants.
And this week he wants to tack an extra Trillion dollars onto a Trillion
dollar deficit. With another 1.5 Billion to promote "Healthy Marriage". What
the **** is that about?

How about paying off the debt and some fiscal responsibility first. Then we
can dream of space exploration.

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...

Don't worry. Your children will know all about it because THEY will be
paying for it.

"plumb bob" wrote in message
news:QgkNb.52099$Rc4.202428@attbi_s54...
"Jay Honeck" wrote in message
news:hPiNb.67808$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.

I think Bush is comatose. You see him as a genius. Therefore one of us is
a
fool and I think that you are it.

Bush has no problem spending your taxes like there is no tomorrow -
especially to win votes. Last week he was pandering to illegal immigrants.
And this week he wants to tack an extra Trillion dollars onto a Trillion
dollar deficit. With another 1.5 Billion to promote "Healthy Marriage".
What
the **** is that about?

How about paying off the debt and some fiscal responsibility first. Then
we
can dream of space exploration.

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...

Don't worry. Your children will know all about it because THEY will be
paying for it.


You can sure tell it's election year. Things he hasn't talked about in the
last three years are all of a sudden coming out of the mud.

Bush has no problem spending your taxes like there is no tomorrow -
especially to win votes.

It's a brilliant plan! I think I'll go buy a Gulfstream V and bill it to my
unborn child. All hail Bush!

I think Bush is comatose. You see him as a genius. Therefore one of us is
a
fool and I think that you are it.

No, he's no genius. But he does have that "vision thing" when it comes to
space exploration -- something this nation (and the world) is sorely
lacking.

Now it'll be up to your kind to kill the dream again.
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

"Jay Honeck" wrote in message
news:krlNb.68069$I06.307311@attbi_s01...
I think Bush is comatose. You see him as a genius. Therefore one of us
is
a
fool and I think that you are it.

No, he's no genius. But he does have that "vision thing" when it comes to
space exploration -- something this nation (and the world) is sorely
lacking.

He lacks the "vision thing". We have been to the moon before, and his daddy
(another big spender) also had grandiose plans for exploration.

Have you every in your life seen new government programs of the size thelike
the

Now it'll be up to your kind to kill the dream again.
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

"Jay Honeck" wrote in message
news:krlNb.68069$I06.307311@attbi_s01...
I think Bush is comatose. You see him as a genius. Therefore one of us
is
a
fool and I think that you are it.

No, he's no genius. But he does have that "vision thing" when it comes to
space exploration

Come on Jay, he said a man on the moon by 2020. That's 16 years by my math.
We did it the first time in less than a decade having never been there
before. Besides, NASA is in such a mess they probably have a hard time
completing a mission to the nearest 7-11.

-- something this nation (and the world) is sorely
lacking.

Now it'll be up to your kind to kill the dream again.
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"