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President Bush made a pretty speech the other day, long on rhetoric and short on details. For those disappointed - and I was one at first - remember that one constant throughout our national relationship with GW Bush is that people tend to badly underestimate him.
RocketForge has an interesting post with some budget projections that don't seem at all unreasonable. This, of course, assumes that you're already somewhat pro-space.
Rand Simberg of Transterrestrial Musings posts some amusing email from a rabid anti-space citizen. The main thing I got out of the exchange (and comments) is that whatever side of the debate you're on, if your mind isn't open then you're an idiot and just wasting everybody's time. The link is to his main blog page, there's much worth looking at, so scroll down and enjoy.
Rocketman has a nice roundup of opinions and articles about the speech, and Laughing Wolf has an interesting take on what it says and what it doesn't say.
My attitude about space exploration is unchanged since before the speech. Like a little kid, "Aren't we there yet?"
Posted by Ted at January 16, 2004 09:32 AMI agree - much like his dad, but with an even longer time frame. My eight month old son will be four years out of college before the earliest date we might be on Mars.
I'm posting a series on how I'd do a Mars mission over at Perfidy.org, if you're interested.
Posted by: buckethead at January 16, 2004 02:45 PMMy take on it is that I would prefer Bush the politician to give broad direction and little specifics to the Rocket Scientists who think this shit up. I would not want to lock such a program into a politically determined technological direction. The best thing Bush could do is say " Here's a few billion dollars - take it and land a man on mars" then get the hell out of the way and let the people who know this stuff figure out how to do it.
Posted by: StMack at January 16, 2004 05:06 PMBuckethead, I've been reading it, good stuff so far. I'm sorry I forgot to link to it, but there's so much out there right now on the subject.
StMack, I'm hoping some of the x-prize guys become all kinds of successful. The government can do it's part, but private industry are going to be the real drivers from here on out. Gee, I sound like an American, don't I? :D
Posted by: Ted at January 16, 2004 09:20 PM