Bush wants to go to Mars...

[javasaurus]

Bush plans to announce a plan to colonize the moon and send men to Mars.

WTOP article on Moon and Mars exploration

In a related note, I was listening to WTOP this morning, and they featured a Democratic Party debate between presidential candidates. One candidate (don't remember which) was asked what he thought about the presidents moon/Mars plans. The response was that, based on the president's desire to explore Mars, in addition to his (the pres') desire to put weapons in space, and the current government's belief in unilateral and proactive use of force, clearly we're getting ready to attack the red planet.

Comments

[acroyear70.livejournal.com]

well, there are all those canals providing fresh water (cleaner than anything here) that they can harvest and bottle up, right?

Bush is finally starting to repeat his father's mistakes (for the first 2 1/2 years, he was repeating Reagan's). Bush Sr. tried to do the "send a man to Mars" speech in 1990, just prior to the Gulf Crisis, and promptly failed to put a single dime into it. Bush Jr. can say all he wants about it, but there's no money to be made from it, so there's no money to put into it.

If money goes into it, keep an eye on which company's get the contracts. we've already had a few cases of Cheney's old homes getting extra attention/contracts (and in one case, without the normal RFP and procurement bids they're supposed to do -- the company that was caught over-charging for gas in Iraq last month).

*gurgle*

[xpioti.livejournal.com]

*dissolves giggling* Lemme guess, the Martians have WMD and are planning terrorist activities, such as carrying an almanac openly. :D I'd actually rather expect the Martian surface to be covered with the New And Improved WMD, WIBTBB: Weapons of Itty Bitty Tiny Boo-Boos. Those martian rocks are dangerous! Why, you could stub a toe on one of them! Heck, you could probably break your toe! Then if you fell down and landed in the dust, it would obviously become an interplanetary incident!

Interestingly enough, we recently watched a video (at work; it was probably intended to inspire us to think outside of the box, not ponder alternate careers in aerospace) of an interview with Donna Shirley, the person in charge of the Sojourner rover project. The interviewer asked her if she thought we'd make it to Mars; she figures we'll have a man on Mars in maybe 2030.