There’s nothing to be alienated about and those who are don’t honestly care about the actual subject (spaceflight).

A. (hopefully):
“Yes”.

That should be short enough, focused enough, positive enough, and hand-holding enough ^_^ Two subjects of utmost importance for the immediate future: setting the VSE implementation straight and supporting private spaceflight.

Notice that I’m not asking about the candidates personal opinion on launcher details, it’s not an engineering question but a political oversight question. It also leaves an opening for the candidates to easily elaborate their answer in whatever manner they wish as a specific context is established.

I’m surprised that this wasn’t asked by the 14 given we have a chem lab on Mars looking for the ingredients we think are necessary for Martian life. We also have another rover readying for launch in 2009 to actually look for life.

Charles, I would not present the questions as choices. A candidate could answer “yes” to govermnent exploration and “yes” to private commerce, support both, and space exploration would benefit from both going forward. If you present it as a choice, it forces the candidate to _make_ a choice, and if they don’t like the option they think is popular, they could end up being against both, and the question itself could reinforce their opinion. Another way of putting this, per the advertising industry, is, when you want something from someone, always parce your message in a positive light.

Factchecker, I agree.

— Donald

Possible questions (trying to be spare with words):

Should manned space efforts be: commercial? government?

Should manned space efforts be: international? national?

Should commercial space efforts be: regulated (to death?)? encouraged?

My “agenda” is that manned space efforts DO NOT imply government (NASA) efforts! We are at the very beginnings of commercial entities putting people in space (and eventually orbit). Certainly, the most efficient (and preferred?) efforts are commercial.

Increasing NASA funding is not necessarily the only way (probably the fastest way) to get back to the Moon. But can we afford it (alone)?

International efforts cede some control, but spread costs out among more people.

Almost certainly, government funding will be flat (at best!) and even if we only try to go to the Moon, can we afford it (and get there in less than 20 years)???

Charles

Do you support the current NASA manned exploration policy of Moon, Mars, and Beyond.

Would you increase NASA funding to ensure astronauts returning to the Moon by 2020.

Do you think private space firms should replace NASA spacecraft in transporting NASA astronauts to the internatonal space station.

What would you do to encourage the emerging space tourist industry and private projects like SpaceShipOne

Those four should be easy enough for any candidate for Congress or the White House. And say a lot about their views on space.

Joseph, that’s interesting. You appear to be correct. I do not recall the links I followed, but they came from a regular E-mailling that I receive. I just tried following the links from a similar E-mail today, and there was no pick list at all. I have no answer to this.

— Donald