NASA to announce Moon trip plans, critics line up

NASA announces detailed plans Monday for sending humans back to the moon and eventually to Mars. No human has trod the lunar surface since 1972 (since the Apollo 17 mission) and humans have never visited Mars yet.

Even before the official announcement, there is criticism from Capitol Hill over the reported $100 billion cost of the lunar program, given government commitments to the Iraq war and recovery from Hurricane Katrina.

The new $100 billion lunar program would begin in 2018 by landing four people on the moon for a seven-day stay.

Excellent - To infinity and beyond (Again)

I have serious doubts about 2018...

The fact that I am UK citizen has no bearing on this comment......." With the problems that the world faces, with terrorism, poverty and global warming, how can the expenditure of $100 billion be justified on sending men to the moon. What is this going to achieve which will benefit mankind and stop mankind being the orchestrator of his own destruction."

1. $100B is an imperceptibly small amount to spend relative to the US federal budget. 2. The US spends more money (both public and private) to help benevolent causes around the world then any other nation. 3. I believe that our ability and will to explore is what separates us form the rest of Earths creatures. 4. If we stay on Earth and only Earth we will eventually go extinct. Whether it be form Earth bound natural disaster(s), space catastrophe or man's own creation the fate of man on Earth is inevitably doomed unless we learn to harness our solar and eventually our extra solar environment. 5. Things on Earth are getting better all the time, not worse. Study a bit of history and you will see that free and prosperous cultures like yours and mine are on the rise. Instead of advocating the US squander $100B more dollars on, what is it you had in mind exactly? Why don't you try and appreciate the absolutely wonderful things man has and will continue to accomplish with the scarce resources that are dedicated to space exploration. Being British you may not think that the discovery of America 500 years ago was a real significant moment in human history. But if you adopt a nonhuman perspective it is arguably the most significant work of exploration that human kind ever embarked on. So too will space exploration and colonization seem to our descendants 500 years form now.
Best regards from America,
The Spacejunkie

You don't think Planet America should try to help conquer it's own world (earth - Remember?) before trying to muck about with others then? I reckon $100 billon would go along way to removing poverty and finding cures to say, I don't know, how about Cancer or AIDS on the planet, don't you?

NTT.

We and everyone else in the world that can afford it are already spending money on the causes you mentioned. Maybe not enough Ill give you that. But diverting money from important and useful causes to support other important and useful causes is a highly debatable topic. One that depends on your own perspective. In other words everybody's got his or her own ideas on how to "save the world." I don't understand you people who are critical of space exploration like it’s the enemy. Have you seen the defense budget of the US and GB lately? With that kind of money I think we may be able to cure cancer, colonize the moon and get every impoverished African into a Pizza Hut by the end of the next fiscal year. But again this kind of viewpoint depends largely on perspective. I'm sure there are many who feel the world is much too dangerous to decrees defense spending. I know lets just tell everyone that "All You Need Is Love." That’s got to work. Perspective. Perspective. Perspective. Hey what kind of car do you drive? What do you do for fun? Do you have any idea how much money Yanks and Brits spend each year on things like beer and amusement parks? Responsibility for all the worlds’ problems is on our heads. So don’t try and bring down the good things we are doing. Fixing the Earth’s troubles starts with one.

In the words of Black Sabbath "They can put a man on the moon quite easy, when people here on earth are dying of old diseases"

Sometimes I wander whether we should even bother messing with finding a unifyed theory of everything, I mean.. that wouldn't really help anyone to say we found it.

I know lets all forgo all of our technological niceties and start living like prehistoric man did we can live and die at peace with the world. We will discover nothing, explore nothing, and create nothing. We will simply stick our heads in the sand and wait for our inevitable extinction. What's the point?

PS: Please don’t hit me with the religious BS. I say man is creates his own fate and you cannot convince me otherwise. That’s a debate for a whole different thread though.

You can't remove poverty. There are always some amount of people that will not thrive and you can force them to. All you can do is provide opportunity which the USA has more of than any other country. So while you people catch up we are gonna explore.

This mission is leading to populating a moon base. This base will be used as an observation point, a launching point for future missions and be an environment for scientists. All kinds of good stuff will come from it.

If I had to chose to let New Orleans rot or fund this mission it would be a hard decision... I dont think they should rebuild New Orleans for $200 billion. Let insurance monies and private industry do it.

Then there is the point made above that...

Now that the Space Shuttle program is dead, sounds to me like this generation of NASA big brains needs something to do. "Hmmm, what would I do if I had $100 Billion? Maybe I could find out why our oceans are dieing? No! Maybe we could use this money to clean up our drinking water? No! Maybe I could research the effects of deforestation: how that maybe causing the spread of new viruses and the effect it has on wildlife and how that effects humans? Nah!!! Hey, I got it! Lets go back to the moon! We already know how to do that! We'll be big stars again!!!! Yippy! Lets get started!" The human race is a lost cause anyway, might as well go back.

Everything that has made us who we are today has been from man's explorations and desire to know what is on the other side, it is what drives us. No matter how bad things seem today overall man is much better off than he was a 1000 years ago so if hour general lot has improved because of exploration would we not want to contiune exploring to improve our lives even more.

I'm with you let us explore the oceans and lets start squashing the various entities on Earth that are harming it. But not by diverting from form the most ambitious and useful program the US government has ever spent money on.

My drinking water is fine straight out of the tap. If yours is bad you should try Ice Mountain brand bottled water. It costs about $1/leiter and is produced right down the street from me. In other words I think modern science has solved this problem. As an interesting side note the exhaust gas of the space shuttle is some of the purest water a man could ever hope to drink.

Thanks to NASA this research is happening and will continue to mature in the future. Want proof? Here you go.

http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/

I almost forgot have you ever been to Kennedy Space Center? 140,000+ acers of pristeen marshland and one of the largest wildlife preservations in the US. With a spaceport to boot. Know your enemy my friend. It is not exploration and the persuit of knowledge it is the lack of it.

Spending that kind of money on a trip to the moon as opposed to spending it on something that could help end suffering on earth would be worse than the most horrific event ever to face humanity, including war, famine, and disease. All of the world's hungry could be fed, all the poor could get the medical attention they need, and the budget for the major medical research organizations could probably be increased 10 fold, making cures come 10 times faster.

No president should be allowed to make decisions that affect America's budget this much, under presidents so far in the future. This is so costly that if we get most of the way there, it would still worth it to throw it all away and stop funding it. Unfortunately, I don't think any president would have the guts to do that.

Barry
http://www.polisource.com