The President's Space Initiative Speech

On Thu, 15 Jan 2004 00:48:16 GMT, "Jay Honeck"
wrote:


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

They will fail. Were not going to let them kill it this time.
No fricking way. I have been following space efforts
a long time now. Ive waited a long time for this.
Its different this time. I can feel it in my gut.
Dont worry, their are millions of us ready to support this
endeavour. Get ready to go to work and start pushing
hard and let congress and the senate know. Join
National Space Society, Join the Planetary Society.
Donate space books to schools.

The critics must understand one thing............

The cost is greater if we *do not* explore space.
We would be denying what we are, we would deny fundamental
truths of human nature to explore.

I submit that *that* cost is too high to pay,

we all know where that road leads. We must explore, excercise those
muscles, push outward and accept challenges. Great risks and
challenges bring great rewards. As pilots that should be obvious.

President Bush is right. I agree with everything he said
today, his speech spelled it out perfectly and Im going to help in
whatever way I can. And I do not stand alone. There is going
to be great support for this from a lot of very smart and brave
people. That is how I know it will not fail.

Great links here, great articles.
http://www.nasawatch.com/index.html

President Bush is right. I agree with everything he said
today, his speech spelled it out perfectly and Im going to help in
whatever way I can. And I do not stand alone. There is going
to be great support for this from a lot of very smart and brave
people. That is how I know it will not fail.

I'm with you 100%, but I fear that rich and powerful special interests stand
in our way.

Remember: The "Great Society" special interest groups are now
self-perpetuating. After all, if they were to actually "cure" poverty (or
sickness, or the environment, or fill in the blank) they would all be
unemployed. As a result, they will continually demand more money, and
continually find new "causes" to cure.

These groups will present a powerful resistance to anything as
forward-looking and positive as new Mars initiative.
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

In article krlNb.68069$I06.307311@attbi_s01, "Jay Honeck"
writes:


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.
--

And if they do kill it this time, I'm afraid it is dead for good.

Once the baby boomers hit Social Security, funds for exploration are going to
be hard to come by if the constituency is not established first.

If we can't establish exploration, for it's own sake, as a priority for the
human species now, then it will be 40 years before there will be a better time.


Don

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

"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.

Jeb wrote:

"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.

Forgive me for jumping in sideways here, as my newsreader (server???)
isn't providing me with all there is, but:

In a discussion I had with my father one evening shortly after Bush
decided we're going back to the moon, it was mentioned that the reason
wasn't so much that Bush wants to go there, or has any vision. The reason
was that there was some country that has developed its own space program
and if there /is/ another moon race, we can't be any other than first to
get there. Of course, the moon is a pretty big place, but it's a lot
smaller than mother Earth. Now, if another country gets to the moon
first, if we're not right there on their heels, we'll fall behind...
other countries get control of the moon, and have an excellent view of
more than they should, with an excellent spot from which,
hypothetically of course, to launch a missile attack if they wanted.

Of course, that's just /one/ scenario, and it may be way off line. BUT:
I think the point is that there is something more than just a President
who's off on his own little cloud. I think there is a behind-the-curtain
reason for going to the moon. Regardless, if any national entity makes a
shot for the moon, our nation has to be right with them to remain in a
position of power, and that's all any of this is really about, is power.

That's my view, anyway. Frankly, I couldn't care less if we go or not.
If we're ever going to get off this planet in a semi-permanent sense,
we'll need a base somewhere, and it's a lot easier to build on Luna Firma
than it will be to build a satellite base with a decaying orbit. Then
again, it will be further away and be more costly to service, but at least
its orbit won't crash it into the atmosphere anytime in the next several
millenia.

My 2 cents.
--
--x _x | CJ Chitwood
| | |_|___ _ _ ____x | Unregistered Linux User # 18,000,002
| |_| | , | | |\ \/ |
|____|_|_|_|___|/\_\ | Sink the ship to reply by e-mail

"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.

First of all, please be careful how you cut and paste. I didn't write the
above "quote" attributed to me.

Of course, that's just /one/ scenario, and it may be way off line. BUT:
I think the point is that there is something more than just a President
who's off on his own little cloud. I think there is a behind-the-curtain
reason for going to the moon.

I don't think there's any defensive (or offensive) military advantage to a
moon base over current ICBM or satellite/space station technology.

We need to be in space for scientific and exploration reasons. Bush's plan
would accomplish precisely that.

Sadly, powerful members of Congress are doing everything possible to kill
the initiative.
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

"Jay Honeck" wrote:
I caught most of it -- and it was fantastic!

It was appalling, to me. Is the man completely insensible to the federal
deficit? He certainly seems insensible to the impracticalities of manned
travel to Mars. I think people on Mars would be a wonderfully cool
thing, but our national credit card is already maxed out. Sometimes you
have to put "cool" on hold and make sure the rent is paid.

To hear a president actually promoting manned
space travel, and laying out a plausible, doable plan

Just about anything is doable with enough money. Do we have it to spare?
Much more science could be done for much less with robots.

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.

It was a cold war propaganda campaign. It was very successful in that
respect.

Until today, I would also sadly explain to them
how we had squandered our future, and abandoned the dream...

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.
--
Dan
C172RG at BFM
(remove pants to reply by email)

I caught most of it -- and it was fantastic!

It was appalling, to me. Is the man completely insensible to the federal
deficit? He certainly seems insensible to the impracticalities of manned
travel to Mars. I think people on Mars would be a wonderfully cool
thing, but our national credit card is already maxed out. Sometimes you
have to put "cool" on hold and make sure the rent is paid.

You know what, Dan? I, too, am appalled at the federal deficit, and the
waste, and all the examples of Gubmint crap. It makes me ill to see it.

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.

In a thousand years America will be remembered for just two things: The
first to use nuclear weapons, and the space program. I would like to build
on the only positive thing we've ever done, thank you very much.
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

"Jay Honeck" wrote:
You know what, Dan? I, too, am appalled at the federal deficit,
and the waste, and all the examples of Gubmint crap.
It makes me ill to see it.

Well, Jay, doggone it, we can't go on like this. I've done contracts for
NASA. When it comes to blowing money, the welfare system ain't in the
race with them. (And by the way, NASA and the military have a peculiar
talent for spending way more money than necessary while still driving
small contractors to bankruptcy.)

There are lots of things we want and need - we just have to realize we
can't have it ALL. It is a particularly American idea that there are no
limits: this has served us well in some respects because we dream big
and achieve big, but we are going to sink this country if we do not get
our priorities straight and our finances under control.

In a thousand years America will be remembered for just two things:...

I'd like to think we'll still be around. I'd also like to think we'll be
zipping around the solar system. We won't be if we don't take care of
the things that really make our country strong.
--
Dan
C172RG at BFM
(remove pants to reply by email)

"Jay Honeck" wrote in message
news:_omNb.68628$I06.309450@attbi_s01...
I caught most of it -- and it was fantastic!

It was appalling, to me. Is the man completely insensible to the federal
deficit? He certainly seems insensible to the impracticalities of manned
travel to Mars. I think people on Mars would be a wonderfully cool
thing, but our national credit card is already maxed out. Sometimes you
have to put "cool" on hold and make sure the rent is paid.

You know what, Dan? I, too, am appalled at the federal deficit, and the
waste, and all the examples of Gubmint crap. It makes me ill to see it.

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.

So why are you willing to trust the program to someone with a .013 batting
average? Hell, put Bob Uecker in Gene Krantz's spot and it'll be done for
1/20th the cost with double the results.