‘Moon Stuck’

George Bush senior trotted the Apollo 11 astronauts out with visions of a return to the moon. No funding, no moon. George Bush junior, like father, like son- no funding, no moon.
It’s still a national disgrace that Nixon dismantled our space infrastructure and put a dagger in the heart of aerospace education
China IS going to the moon and they’re staying (with all the military connotations that implies as well). And anyone notice that a Brit is building a spaceport in New Mexico. Wake up, America.

NASA is a joke; flying the same circles for the past 30 years going no where fast. It’s no wonder many young people today don’t believe we ever went to the moon. The NASA scientists and technicians of today can’t hold a candle to the driven visionaries of the 60′s. The astronauts of today are just flying bus drivers. The “real” astronauts walked on the moon.

Militarily, it would be a monumental mistake to allow the Chinese, Russians and others to establish bases on the moon, while we sit and twiddle our thumbs. After all, who would you rather see on the moon holding a big rock over our heads, The Russians, the Chinese, or us? Of course, I think a trip to an asteroid is also a good idea, for the exploration and science, for the experience and for the advancement of humankind.

George bush is a flaming IDIOT

NASA AND BUSH are both morons!
We should of been already on the moon a long time ago and had a base there!
Instead of mars!!!
The Chinese will go there and built a base! But what NASA don’t realize is that if we built a base there we can shoot weapons at lighter weight. MORONS!!!!!!
NASA WAKE UP AND START DOING YOUR DAM JOB!
And if the Chinese get there sooner then us believe me Americans will be annoyed as hell.

We should have erected several bases on the moon long ago.

Send Bush, Cheney, Rice and Rumsfeld to the moon with no water or food.

Most people don’t realize that one of the primary reasons for Bush wanting to return to the moon is for alternative fuel resources, primarily Helium-3 which is only found on the moon. There are about 1 million tons of helium-3 on the moon. 25 tons of the stuff could supply a years worth of enery to the US. However we need to get a good understanding of what the consequences of mining the moon would be.

Go with the moon. It is the high ground and speaking in military terms, you do not want the chinese sitting poised over the entire earth….watching…! There’s plenty of good science available there as well. I guarantee it–if the Chinese get there first, they claim the whole thing as theres. Look to history, my friends.

The moon has a lot more likelyhood of being developed in the near future than mars. The only thing we have to gain from Mars at this point is knowledge. (Most of it just being environmental or related to planetary developement and not highly profitable.) A great deal of that can be done remotely for far less cost. The moon doesn’t have a great deal to offer, but the cost of getting there is way lower and the potential for commercial return is way higher. They need to funnel money for the mars missions into better robotics for exploration and lunar missions.

Until we develop “warp drive” Mars will be but a distant red dot in the sky and is best explored by the unmanned rovers which have proven themselves so admirably (way to go NASA !) I think that instead of building the silly International Space Station, the money would have been better spent on a moon base which could be made much more permanent, a better platform for science (including huge telescopes)and be somewhat more protected from the Micrometeorites and space Junk which will eventually prove its demise

In Re; to Stu…warp drive is and will be the work of fantasy for years to come but Mars is achievable. The Moon wasn’t achievable either util we went.
The ISS is nearly built so your notion of not building it is “silly” unto itself. If you think that the Moon will be a safe haven from meteorites you aren’t paying much attention in science class. Since there is some mass and no atmosphere the Moon attracts meteors but has no atomosphere to destroy them before impact vs the Earth that does. The ISS can be steered avoiding the greater majority of objects in space thereby extending the life of the station. Impacts from space stuff is always imperiling any manmade object, no matter where it is.

It makes much more sense to have a base on the moon as a jump point for further exploration than the earth. Moving resources from the moon to a space dock would be much easier than from the earth to same and the moon should be able to provide minerals needed for construction.

The comments of Poster “vizorsdn” has to be the most intelligent comments I have read in on these boards!! That really says alot about the mindset of the citizens of the U.S.

Personally, I want NASA to keep doing the research that gave us Tang, the MEMORY FOAM MATTRESS, and synthetic food. That research produced other valuable researched knowledge-research into bacterial production in zero gravity that has priceless medical research value.
Before we go back into space, I would like to see astronauts stringently held to tighter protocols than other service members. I DEMAND that the safety of our astronauts be put before any decision to launch, no matter what the director thinks. And I DEFINITELY want a different contractor to design a better spacecraft than the seriously ancient and flawed space shuttle.

Don’t you get it?? It was such a political play!! Kennedy had the vision to go to the moon but Nixon was president. But we all associate going to the moon with Kennedy (and rightly so!). So the monkey in charge (no offense to the monkey population) decided to create his own “legacy” by announcing these plans but providing absolutely, 100% no real means or desire to accomplish the goal. He will leave the real hard work to the next person in charge. So, when it happens we can all look back and thank Dubya for his so called great vision!!
George Bush – PROOF that intelligent design is not real!!!!

Actually I wanted a convoy of space vehicles some manned and some with supplies and planned medical and maintenance logistics.

David D. Gann have faith I want to be on planet Mars by the year 2012 and their is no reason why we are not on that planet by that year.

I can’t disagree with NASA’s reasoning behind wanting to aim for landing on an asteroid as the next space trip instead of going to the moon, but I have to wonder if this line of thinking isn’t “being penny-wise and pound-foolish.” More specifically, despite our repeated landings on the moon, we haven’t yet begun to explore or understand it. Subsequent moon flights, along with establishment of a moon base (preferably scientific in nature), would allow for that. But such a wish list requires reliable space transportation for exploration, and, much more importantly, adequate funding for NASA and its programs. (Are you listening out there, Congress?)

That article is rubbish.
Virtually everyone wants to see a return to the moon and and to mars.
What a load of disinformation.

Robots first! Man should stay home until the solar system is terraformed.

asteroids are where it is at ! Going to the moon is where it is at – going to Mars is exceedingly stupid! We can use asteroids as weapons is need be, and, more importantly, we can learn how to control and move them to places where they will do a lot of good. We can use them to terraform Mars – one good hit would melt the some of the Ice on Mars – giving the planet an instant atmosphere, ditto for the moon. The Moon is a solid base for weapons launching and a perfect half-way point for getting to mars FAST.
Let me repeat: Going to Mars now is exceeding stupid! But asteroids are going to hit the Earth sooner or later, we need to learn how to steer them anyway you look at it! I repeat! Anyone who disagrees with what I just said is exceedingly stupid!

Stu,
I think going to Mars is a Marvelous idea. There are interesting aliens and faces on mountains.
sm

If I remember human developement correctly we first learn to crawl, then walk, and eventually run. If something catastrophic happens to interrupt this process we have to go back to the last stage learned and then go forward. Since our last “Giant Leap for Mankind” happened over 20 years ago it would seem that the next logical step would be to revisit the Moon and establish a permanent base. Colonizing the moon would have a far greater impact on Earth’s economy than a Mars mission. Let’s see…send 6 astronauts to Mars so we can say “Been there done that” or open up the Moon to the general public so that more humans can say they’ve been there than K2(another “been there done that” bragging rights place) here on Earth. Pluto Nash is a closer reality than you think! As for the “You must be a Moron because you can’t see it my way!” mentality, this is the main reason we are where we are right now….stuck on planet Earth! There’s a box on your 1040 that kindly asks you if you want to contribute to the presidentail election fund, well I say there oughta be a box that asks if you’d like to contribute to the NASA Budget! Let America speak with their wallets! If we wait for the politicians to approve the spending…we’ll be right here in 20 more years….Stuck on Earth!!! At last count there are 300 million Americans I’d be willing to bet that there’s great part of the population that would like to be heard on this subject. The problem is they are never given the chance, after all, who really decides on the budget? Politicians… and they’re just doing what the string pullers tell them to do! That is if they actually show up and vote instead of letting anybody that does show up vote for them. Time to get off my soap box….back to Earth so to speak…I remember when as a boy I used to dream…and my dreams took me to distant planets…have we all forgotten how to dream? Dreams become reality you know!

I can see profits coming from the moon or even just orbiting space stations through low gravity crystal growth applications, tourism, isolated biotech experimentation, etc…. Mars is just too far away to be of any practical use for a very very long time. Any manned mars trip will cost a fortune for a one shot trip. Probably the only one for another 50 or 100 years… If we had more asteroids that were closer, i would approve of visiting them too. We will need to develope ore extraction and refining techniques at some point. Transporting metals out of earth’s gravity well costs too much… Wonder if it will be economical to do mining on the moon…