01-16-2004, 06:44 PM
Quote: After reading Michael Moore's book "Dude where's my Country". (not to hijack the thread or anything)... One has to really wonder if even 1/16th of what Mr. Moore's book details is correct, what is George W's motivation to attemtp to do this?
Don't have to be Michael Moore to know the answer... votes.
Bush is doing it for the "gee-whiz lets go to space!!!" votes. There is no way the funding will get through congress.
It seems a lot of people are either too smart and see through the bs, or don't know/care about the value of the moon anyway. Thus far the only real cheering i've heard have been from the nutjobs who think the moon must be made into a military installation to save us from the perils of Red China. (Yes, that's pretty much what they say.)
By the way, the moon would be a nice place to set up a mass driver and lob a few rocks back at countries on Earth you hate. But only a lunatic would do that sort of thing...
Personally I find it difficult to see why I should give a damn about the Moon, or Mars. So we get people to Mars. Say.. ten people. Takes them six months to get there, six months to get back. While they're there they do.. what? They can't exactly kick start terraforming, now can they?
It's a laudable scientific goal and the information it brings us will be interesting, but hardly applicable to today's society. Nearly everything a manned mission to Mars would do can and is being done by automation. Once you send people you open the door to a whole host of logistical problems (like taking along food for the 12 month round trip).
Oh and did I mention that it's something like two years between launch windows on Mars?