[moon and mars] Executive branch announcement emminent

Try

-Fred Shecter NAR 20117

I concede.

well of course we here in the choir would like to see more manned exploration but frankly I am pessimistic. remember the loud silence after King George I's announcement of a manned Mars mission - was that 1989?

and did you look at the results of the poll

fundamentally I guess that is why there is no real manned space exploration - people do not clearly want it!!

still, when you think of what could have been done with, oh say the $100 billion wasted on "Star Wars" SDI crap...

Yep. Some of it went to rocket companies :)

I thought this was discussed months ago?

Boy, i must really have a crystal ball.

anyway, what do ya think they are planning for a lunar vehicle this time? saturn V clone or something using the ISS as a space port?

What abotu the mars design?

anyway, what do ya think they are planning for a lunar vehicle this time? saturn V clone or something using the ISS as a space port?

What abotu the mars design?

i was thinking about chinas announcement and possibly another Space Race. hopefully this could push for more exspansion of the ISS and make it more than a political trophy

well there is always Rutan.....

Here is the official announcement that you've all been waiting for:

-Fred Shecter NAR 20117

In 2/3 of a century we progressed from a 112' flight that lasted for a few seconds to sending men to the moon and back. What further progress have we made in the last 1/3 of a century? We've regressed. We don't even have the technology today to do what we did 34 years ago.

Bob Kaplow NAR # 18L TRA # "Impeach the TRA BoD" >>> To reply, remove the TRABoD!

Then again, they could add armaments to the ISS to keep the invading Chinese out. ;)

Just wait till 12-17-03 or till 1-9-04.

Bush needs something to deflect public opinion from wars and loss of liberty.

well that seems pretty clear - perhaps because of the "lukewarm" reception the idea got, only 60/40 in the MSN poll (self selected respondants), worse in other polls.

And that number is probably due to the intelligence level of the general population...

I live in the LA area. During the work day, I listen to talk radio as 'background noise'. Today, our local station (KABC 790 TalkRadio in Los Angeles), had as their subject during the 11AM hour the fact that Bush is 'planning' on announcing a 'back to the moon' initiative, and they wanted to find out what people thought... (of course, this was before the just posted announcement by the White House that Bush has no such plans...)

Anyway, the long and short of it is that I managed to get on the air for about 10 minutes (which is an eternity in radio-time), and talked about the overall concept, the benefits of space exploration, and about a group that I chair to try and save the last Apollo launch tower (see

BTW, the host of the program was very pro going back to the moon, and castigated one caller who thought we shouldn't spend anything on space. The host asked the caller how much he thought NASA receives -- his guess was $100 billion/year. The host then proceeded to eat him for lunch.

He also successfully fended off the nutcase who thought it would be a great idea to go back to the moon, since then we could just send our prisoners there (maybe she read "The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress" as a child, who knows). But all of the other calls were very supportive, and enthusiastic.

The other day I talked with some folks during our Civil Air Patrol annual Open House, and it was amazing how some folks (who lived through Apollo) really had no clue about it. I had folks pointing to the Space Shuttle and telling their kids that's how we went to the moon, etc. And there was the middle-school history teacher who had not even heard of the Mercury program...

Anyway, I hope that President Bush will NOT hold his finger up to the wind the way the President Clinton used to, and simply undertakes it because it's the right thing to do.

David Erbas-White

There's a gross understatement.

I would be glad to put the audio on my website.

If nothing else I predict Bush will not do that.

Jerry

Kill file me!