The President's Space Initiative Speech

"Wdtabor" wrote in message
...

You ever use a GPS? Get a weather report? Make a long distance call? Watch
TV?


Yup, all of the above. But who are we trading with in space?



Do you think anyone anticipated they would use those services when we
navigated
with sextants?


No. But who are we trading with in space? What does anything that you
listed have to do with establishing a base on the moon or going to mars?

Jay Honeck wrote:

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!

I'm cautiously optomistic, we are way overdue with our space exploration.

I fear this may only be election year rhetoric. Or strictly a reaction to
the Chinese announcements.

What I don't want is another cold war style of competition. If the Chinese
are serious about going into space then there should be plenty of
opportunity for cooperation. Let them foot the bill for some of the expense
instead of competing with them. Manned space exploration is too expensive
to allow for duplication of effort.

Also, it would be a mistake to abandon our unmanned program, it's too cost
effective.

--
Frank....H

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


"Wdtabor" wrote in message
...

You ever use a GPS? Get a weather report? Make a long distance call? Watch
TV?


Yup, all of the above. But who are we trading with in space?


Ourselves, other countries here on earth.

Who are we trading with on the open ocean?

Space is not a place where people build WalMarts, it is a place we travel
through and send satelites and their signals through to do business here on
Earth.

But if we can't sail our boats there, we lose the use of it.

Don

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

Jay Honeck wrote:
....

Still, in my lifetime, I can point to just one real Gubmint success story:
Apollo. Every other government program, from the "Great Society", to the
"War on Poverty," to "No Child Left Behind," has been a dismal, utter waste
of money and time.




Social equations are always more difficult to solve than technical ones,
but their results may be a lot more important part of our everyday
lives. Velcro is good, social justice is better. Be careful that the
technical "successes" are not just head-in-the-sand escapism from
life's real problems.

"Hell, when a bunch of *pilots* can't even support manned space
exploration, we are surely doomed as a nation."

I would think that the vast majority of pilots and other "technical"
people (including myself) do support space exploration. But there does
seem to be just that little extra skepticism of motives, which is healthy.

Hopefully it is a sign that cast-in-concrete blind partisan support is
finally giving way to some real *discussion* of issues.

"Icebound" wrote in message
able.rogers.com...
Jay Honeck wrote:
...

Still, in my lifetime, I can point to just one real Gubmint success story:
Apollo. Every other government program, from the "Great Society", to the
"War on Poverty," to "No Child Left Behind," has been a dismal, utter waste
of money and time.




Social equations are always more difficult to solve than technical ones,
but their results may be a lot more important part of our everyday
lives.

No Aerospace Contractor Left Behind is a good name for the current program.

"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.

Now it'll be up to your kind to kill the dream again.

When asked about the environment Bush said he was planning to visit it one day.

"Mutts" wrote in message
...

"Before they complain about it, I wish the moaners would take the time
to find out a few things about NASA's measly 1%. It has added billions
of dollars back to our economy.

When NASA does
cutting-edge work, new products are devised and people, Americans, are
put to work producing them. To keep our economy steaming and pay our
bills, we have to stay ahead in product innovation. That means
inventing and manufacturing new products. One proven way to do that is
to get the space program going with some real work."

Amendment 336 -- "Congress shall have the power to do R&D just like everyone
else."

NASA doesn't PRODUCE anything.

Recently, Jay Honeck posted:

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.

Well, I caught it, and have a rather diferent picture of his idea.

* There is no plan for financing this notion. The effort would take more
money than we have *ever* appropriated for NASA, and in an environment
where people complain about the $820 million that the *two* current Mars
missions cost, coming up with perhaps 100x that amount is unlikely.

* There has always been strong sentiments against manned space flight, to
the point where we haven't been able to even finish our commitments to the
space station and other far more economical projects.

* Such an undertaking would be more feasible if it was an international
effort. However, since has GWB proven that he can't "just get along" with
the rest of the world, it's unlikely that other countries would be willing
to pitch in on such a project.

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

I'd bet that we won't hear another word about it after November. And, of
course, it will somehow turn out to be the Democrats' fault. ;-)

Neil

In article , "Dan Luke"
wrote:

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

Not true.

--
Bob Noel

"S Narayan" wrote in message
...

The only way one can avoid this to have a moon colony which can produce
stuff for the 2nd launch instead of getting it from earth. That means
setting up a self-sustaining moon colony plus more. How long is that going
to take? The ISS is not done, and space shuttle program is in remission.
Wow, talk about pipe dreams. This will be a 50-100 year program. It's
probably a good long term goal, but the timing is a bit suspect.

Really? Think about what you are saying. It is quite absurd. What are they
going to do? Head down to the Moon Home Depot and pick up supplies or what?
Everything, except dirt, is going to have to come from earth. And last time
I checked, dirt is not on the materials list to build a space ship.

So tell us what can be manifactured on the moon at a cheaper cost than on
earth. Really, I'm clutching my chair in anticipation to hear how this will
be done.

Plumb Bob