Bush announces plan of a permanet colony on Moon.

[__earth]

You bet!
Though I know this is a political gimmick, hell yeah this is one of the few decisions I agree with Bush.
Hah! Never thought I live to see another science fiction becoming reality!

[jiinjoo]

Initial phase already 750 billion dollars...
As CNN put it:

a small step for the President,

a BIG step for the Budget!

[dinna_g]

I don't think it's feasible.. There's so many political leaders who did not keep their promise.. Even if it is feasible, I don't think anyone would spend so much on this stuff.. It's just ridiculous.

[__earth]

Space exploration is never feasible. It never was and never is and never will be. Even the Apollo Project was not feasible. Its resources were stretch thin. But then, JFK said, we will go and they did.

If the US won't do it, than nobody can. The conservative European won't do it? Hah, it takes more than a lifetime. nor will the Japanese and the Chinese.
Even the ISS was said to be not feasible but hey, right now it's up there.

anyway, the plan is 2018. the cost could easily be scaled down with new technologies. That's roughly 14 more years until the first Lunar Colony.

[z]

On the topic of space exploration, has anyone heard of a start-up called SpaceX?

It's founded by Elon Musk, the founder (i think) of PayPal and another successful business (sorry don't recall the name of the business).

Basically SpaceX is offering much cheaper launches to space with it's own technologies. However though, they focus on small to medium size launches, so I guess it'll take some time before the price for heavy loads drops.

[z]

read more about SpaceX:

http://www.spacex.com/

This is Elon Musk's biography from http://etl.stanford.edu/handouts/0304_aut_speakerbio/ElonMusk.htm:

Elon Musk
Founder, CEO & CTO - SpaceX


SpaceX is the third company founded by Mr. Musk. Prior to SpaceX, he co-founded PayPal, the world's leading electronic payment system, and served as the company's chairman and CEO. PayPal has over twenty million customers in 38 countries, processes several billion dollars per year and went public on the NASDAQ under PYPL in early 2002. Mr. Musk was the largest shareholder of PayPal until the company was acquired by eBay for $1.5 billion in October 2002.

Before PayPal, Mr. Musk co-founded Zip2 Corporation in 1995, a leading provider of enterprise software and services to the media industry, with investments from The New York Times Company, Knight-Ridder, MDV, Softbank and the Hearst Corporation. He served as Chairman, CEO and Chief Technology Officer and in March 1999 sold Zip2 to Compaq for $307 million in an all cash transaction.

Mr. Musk's early experience extends across a spectrum of advanced technology industries, from high energy density ultra-capacitors at Pinnacle Research to software development at Rocket Science and Microsoft. He has a physics degree from the University of Pennsylvania, a business degree from Wharton and originally came out to California to pursue graduate studies in energy physics at Stanford.

[topdog]

could it be that bush thinks the moon is in the middle east?

[__earth]

no but he thinks osama is on mars. that's why he doesn't object the spirit mission.

[topdog]

smart thinking by bush. mars will fit in nicely in his updated axis of evil.

[Thirdshifter]

smart thinking by bush. mars will fit in nicely in his updated axis of evil.

funny that you mentioned axis of evil. now that iraq is out of the picture maybe Bush should update the agenda with something else..

[z]

whoa... what happened to all those preachings about "personal attacks"?

[__earth]

this is not a personal attack. we are attacking the Bush administration. however, I had i mind of supporting bush space program but mingling with too many liberals spoil me. :D

[1st_Spirit]

let's begin the space exploration, a new age of "Great Voyage"!!!

[topdog]

i am bashing bush. it's fun.:)

[silverblue]

Read this: Cost of Bush Space Initiative Unclear

http://www.space.com/news/nasa_cost_040111.html

I dont know what you guys think, but personally, I feel that all these money could be put to better use... like narrow the gap between the rich and poor, building more infrastructure for the rural areas, helping the needy ones, etc. I still really don't get the point of this plan. What's the motivation of spending so much unnecessary money building new heavy lift rockets, spacecraft to take people to lunar orbit and other spacecraft to ferry them to and from the surface and then send people to a vacuum environment where the temperatures can range from 250 degrees to minus 250 degrees?! I think the money could be better spent if he supported the Kyoto protocol and invested the money in environment conservation efforts!

[__earth]

I think its ok. Bush is asking US$ 1 billion over the period of 5 years. That's doable. Anyway, the US economy is on the expansion curve.

seeing another lie however, is possible since Bush senior also mentioned a mission to mars but nothing happened. and Dumbya's record is worse than his father.

[jiinjoo]

Agree - it's doable. In fact so many entrepreuneur is currently trying to ride the rocket curve, some have suggested that the next boom cycle will see a proliferation of rocket propulsion start-ups selling < 10 million dollar rockets for space tourism, instead of bio tech. Elon is just one of them.

As the website silverblue put (click on 10 reasons to go to the moon) - there is no incentive for the world hegemony to put money into environment conservation efforts. The effects in way too long into the future and will not get the cowboy more votes. but if you see a launch or at least some tangible preparation to go to moon / mars, the media frenzy itself will push you right through.

Plus, US can work with China for example on the mars mission, a pretty good foreign relations tactic. Scientist have been dreaming of more samples and more studies since the invention of science fiction, engineers wants a lunar power station (there's no atmosphere there - sun burn is instant) and minerals can be found in asteroids / mars. Maybe it takes a lot of entrepreuneurial spirit for this to happen, but still, what better frontier can this economic powerhouse achieve? Maybe democracy and capital markets will be dismantled and all human beings will return to the mediocre living conditions 5 centuries later, or even go extinct, why wait?

hey...i wanna life on the moon...it sure is fun to see all the stars every minute of my life

:D :D :D :D :D :D :D

[1st_Spirit]

Fun for 1st 2 hours, the next day sure I'll ask them to send me back...