Campaign '12

John McCain wants to put “a man or a woman on Mars”

Sen. John Mccain (R-AZ), who lost to Barack Obama in the 2008 presidential election, was campaigning in Florida yesterday in support of President Obama’s 2012 opponent, Mitt Romney, including a stop on Florida’s Space Coast. While there, he briefly offered his thoughts on the US should be doing in space, specifically, the need for a single major project that can win the support of the American public. “Let’s focus on putting a man or a woman on Mars. Let’s focus on that,” he said, Florida Today reported.

That single-minded focus on Mars is a departure from his 2008 campaign, which didn’t explicitly call out human exploration of Mars as a top goal in its space policy white paper, focusing instead on continuing Constellation, maximizing utilization of the ISS, and ensuring “that space exploration is top priority and that the U.S. remains a leader”. The Romney campaign has also not formally endorsed a human mission to Mars in its campaign statements to date. President Obama, though, did make sending human to Mars (or, at least, in orbit around Mars) by the mid-2030s once of his goals for NASA in his April 2010 speech at the Kennedy Space Center.

16 comments to John McCain wants to put “a man or a woman on Mars”

  • McCain was chair of the Senate Science Committee in January 2004 when Bush proposed the Vision for Space Exploration. In his opening remarks, he derided VSE, saying it was going to cost a lot more than the Administration was claiming.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ub2tdhyNwDk

    Keep in mind, this was before Constellation blew up into a fiscal monstrosity.

    So now he wants NASA to spend umpteen billions putting one human on Mars, without saying why or what is the financial justification for the U.S. taxpayer.

    Senator McCain, I appreciate your military service to this country and what you suffered during capture. But you’re just another pandering politician.

  • Robert G. Oler

    McCain has sadly become a parody of the GOP,,,there is no intellectual consistency or really honor. John McCain of 2000 was the real deal…the Bush43 years took a toll on him and the party…

    RGO

  • amightywind

    I share McCain’s wish. Lord hope its an American man or woman.

    • Dave Hall

      amightywind I share McCain’s wish. Lord hope its an American man or woman.

      I also share McCain’s wish … “focus on putting a man or a woman on Mars”

      I’ve been reading a lot of different perspectives of the Apollo program. One quote jumped out at me:

      “We got away from the old fogies. We got down there and created a whole new thing with a bunch of twenty- and thirty-year-olds. Holy smokes, that move to Houston is what made the program.”

      Cox, Catherine Bly; Charles Murray (2004-07-29). Apollo (Kindle Locations 2075-2077). South Mountain Books. Kindle Edition.

  • E.P. Grondine

    Hi RGO –

    Have you watched what they did to Sen. Lugar?

    In any case, protection from impact has to be our nations number one space priority now.

  • amightywind

    In any case, protection from impact has to be our nations number one space priority now.

    That’s nuts. The threat is low. NASA already tracks the threat. How much larger to you propose the effort be? I am all for funding characterization of the threat, if only to identify more targets for a manned NEO mission. But it is far from the nations top space priority.

    McCain has sadly become a parody of the GOP,,,there is no intellectual consistency or really honor.

    Of all Americans, a POW who put his butt on the line in defense of America, who went on to a brilliant career in public service, has earned the honor of his fellow citizens. Shame on you.

  • Coastal Ron

    Bad news for Romney – McCain supports Obama’s goal for Mars.

    Romney doesn’t have a goal for Mars, or the Moon, or even for getting into space, since he’s waiting to hold a meeting so other people can tell him what he should be thinking about for our goals in space. How inspiring…

  • Vladislaw

    So McCain must be all for funding President Obama’s plans for Mars. That is a big project… just like he wants. Now if we can just get him to vote against the SLS and vote for a reasonable option if America is going to pursue heavy lift.

  • common sense

    My friends, the current GOP is going South, so to speak. Good.

    But it is interesting to see them, including Romney, say how they oppose the President’s plans yet they would do (Mars mission) or actually did (healthcare) the same things.

    So in essence they are endorsing the President.

    Hmm. Interesting.

    http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/10/25/powell-gives-obama-his-endorsement-for-a-second-time/

    “Senator John McCain said Thursday that Mr. Powell had “harmed” his legacy by endorsing Mr. Obama a second time. Appearing on Brian Kilmeade’s radio program, Mr. McCain said “General Powell, you disappoint us and you have harmed your legacy even further by defending what is clearly the most feckless foreign policy in my lifetime.””

  • Vladislaw

    Getting into two unfunded wars … unfeckless
    Getting out of two unfunded wars … feckless

  • Neil Shipley

    So, another Apollo effort. Another deadend? Another mega-NASA program? Is that what he’s suggesting? What a nong!!

  • Robert G. Oler

    common sense wrote @ October 25th, 2012 at 2:09 pm

    http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/10/25/powell-gives-obama-his-endorsement-for-a-second-time/

    “Senator John McCain said Thursday that Mr. Powell had “harmed” his legacy by endorsing Mr. Obama a second time. Appearing on Brian Kilmeade’s radio program, Mr. McCain said “General Powell, you disappoint us and you have harmed your legacy even further by defending what is clearly the most feckless foreign policy in my lifetime.””

    Kilmeade is about as dumb as they come or at least he panders that way (as does his cohost on Fox and Friends) but you can see where all this is going. John Sununu came out tonight and said Powell endorsed the President again in fact because they are both black.

    (ignore the fact that he is the four star who knows more about the military then Sununu/McCain and Kilmeade combined…

    it is like Ryans remarks on space or Romney’s on the military designed to pander to people who really are just either dumb or goofy RGO

  • E.P. Grondine

    Hi AW

    “That’s nuts. The threat is low. NASA already tracks the threat. How much larger to you propose the effort be? I am all for funding characterization of the threat, if only to identify more targets for a manned NEO mission. But it is far from the nations top space priority.”

    Actually, AW, it may look nuts to you, and you may claim that the threat is low, and you can claim the NASA has everything under control, but you speak of which you know not.

    I wrote a book”Man and Impact in the Americas”, which is the best summary available of what has hit here and when for the last 13,000 years. Within the impact research community, it is considered to be pretty good; you might consider borrowing a copy via interlibrary loan and reading it.

    The threat is present: Comet Schwassmann Wachmann 3 in 2022. Unless SW3 turns into magic comet dust, which is a problem in and of itself.

    As far as threat characterization goes, I can tell you that the Earth crater research budget is near zero.

    As far as NASA goes, you probably want to consider their own estimates of what they have not found yet, which is available over at planetarydefense.blogspot.com

  • common sense

    @ Robert G. Oler wrote @ October 26th, 2012 at 12:17 am

    Yeah I had not had time to read Sununu’s statement until now. What a shame. What a bunch of low-life assholes.

    I still have a lot of problems with Powell’s act at the UN though regardless of my previous admiration for the man. I think what he did was inexcusable and still is. But the other GOPers just want us to go back living in caves.

  • DCSCA

    “John McCain wants to put “a man or a woman on Mars.”

    He also wants Americans to get off his lawn.

    This wretched, tortured soul, who’s poor judgement has ranged from selecting Sarah Palin as a running mate to hot-dogging it and getting himself shot down (a lousy aviator, McCain crashed five aircraft over his career) has never held a private sector job and has been living off the government ALL his life- never even had a paper rout as a kid. Now he babbles about sending men or women– (preferably men AND women, Mr. McCain- sheesh!) to Mars. But first, he wants to quench his vindictiveness and send our kids to every frigging war while he and chickenhawks Graham and Lieberman wave goodbye. No sir. The last person on Earth to be talking about humans leaving it is John McCain.

  • @ E.P. Grondine – “Comet Schwassmann Wachmann 3 in 2022″

    “There’s no danger of a collision. “Goodness, no,” says Yeomans. “The closest fragment will be about six million miles away–or twenty-five times farther than the Moon.” That’s close without actually being scary.”

    It seems to me that AW’s comment still stands.

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