By Jeff Foust on 2004 January 11 at 1:20 pm ET Sen. Joe Lieberman added his voice to the chorus of Democratic presidential candidate responses to the rumors of the new Bush space policy, according to an article in Saturday’s Baltimore Sun. Like some others, Lieberman expressed some support for a new space exploration initiative, just not necessarily Bush’s plan. Bush, he said, “must be from another planet if he thinks that, with his fiscal priorities, we can get there and at the same time make America stronger… We should find a way to go to Mars – but not at the exclusion of improving health care, shoring up Social Security, creating jobs and strengthening homeland security here at home.”
By Jeff Foust on 2004 January 10 at 4:43 pm ET Retired General Wesley Clark hinted at what his space policy might encompass should he be elected in November. In a speech Saturday in New Hampshire, Clark briefly touched upon space during a speech where he gave his 20-year vision for space. According to the Clark campaign’s press release:
“We’ll move beyond the Space Shuttle and a few unmanned missions within the Solar System with more substantial efforts to help humanity explore the frontiers of space,” Clark forecasted. “We’ll do it with real programs designed to most efficiently and effectively generate the science skills and technology we need to meet what I believe will be our destiny.” Within two decades, we could even land a man on Mars.
In the speech itself Clark mentions how reading science fiction shaped his childhood:
As a kid, I read science fiction books – like Isaac Asimov’s The Red Planet Mars – filled with fantastic tales only possible in the imagination. Of magical electronics, communicator devices small enough to fit on your wrist, space flight that was an everyday occurrence, and journeys to far-away planets. Just a few decades later, the science fiction fantasies of my youth have become our realities. We have phones that actually capture moving images, and while space flight isn’t an everyday event, just this week, we saw the first color photographs of Mars.
(Somebody please tell the general that Spirit is not the first spacecraft to provide color images from the surface of Mars, a honor that dates back over a quarter-century to the twin Viking landers.) He also offers a few additional details about a possible human mission to Mars:
Imagine if in the next twenty years, we actually sent humans – not just rover robots — to Mars — which we can do if it truly advances our ambitions. Astrobiolotists [sic] today believe we will, and as a result, we’ll have a better understanding of our own planet and our own people.
By Jeff Foust on 2004 January 10 at 4:22 pm ET The Washington Post and the Chicago Tribune are among the first major US newspapers to publish editorials on Bush’s proposed new space policy. An editorial in Saturday’s Post casts a skeptical eye on the proposal, primarily because of the perceived high cost and other priorities (Head Start, housing assistance, AIDS) where the money could instead be spent. Contrasting the proposal with Bush’s previously-announced AIDS plan, the editorial notes:
It’s not clear, by contrast, what practical results, if any, would be yielded by Mr. Bush’s moon-Mars agenda. A more modest evolution in spaceflight technology—officials Friday were talking about a 5 percent increase in NASA’s budget—would be worth debating in ordinary times. But Mr. Bush’s past fiscal recklessness puts a heavy burden even on modest proposals—and flying to the moon is not modest.
An editorial in Friday’s Tribune, though, is more supportive of the measure. Remarking on the recent success of the Spirit mission and the possibility that Mars might once have been more like Earth, the editorial notes ,”What better way to unlock mysteries than to do it in person?” It then adds, perhaps with a bit of tongue stuck in cheek:
Come to think of it, though, Bush will be out of the White House by then, whether or not he wins a second term. Would it be a surprise if he’s thinking about a next job that requires extensive travel?
By Jeff Foust on 2004 January 10 at 9:13 am ET Much of the discussion about the rumored new human spaceflight initiative has focused on the cost of such a program and Congress’s willingness to fund it. But is that the major near-term issue? Maybe not, an unnamed aide to a Republican Senator tells Reuters. Saying it was “unlikely” that Congress would fund such a program, the aide added that “the president doesn’t have to get this through Congress this year. He just needs to put it on the table as part of the agenda for his second term… The president is now looking for centrist supporters who may be enthralled by big ideas. This has much less to do about legislative reality on Capitol Hill this year than it has to do with political reality in 2004.” Indeed, the rumored increase in NASA’s budget for FY05—$800 million—is pretty small in the grander scheme of things. Still, the money, or rather the willingness to spend the money, will become an issue down the road for either Bush or his successor when the project, and its budget, ramps up.
By Jeff Foust on 2004 January 10 at 9:04 am ET Leading Democratic presidential candidate Howard Dean sounded off Friday on the reports that Bush will propose new human missions to the Moon and Mars. In a Reuters article about the general obstacles such a proposal faces, Dean questions the affordability of such a mission. “I’m very much in favor of space exploration,” Dean told Reuters. “Where is the tax increase to pay for it? We already have a half-a-trillion-dollar deficit. It is not worth bankrupting the country if that’s what’s going to happen. This president needs to be serious about the budget deficit.”
By Jeff Foust on 2004 January 9 at 4:21 pm ET Rep. Dennis Kucinich, another Democratic candidate for President, spoke out on the rumors of a new Bush space policy initiative during a mini-debate in Washington DC on Friday. (I use the term “mini-debate” because the only other candidates participating were Moseley-Braun and Sharpton; all three are marginal candidates.) The Washington Post quoted Kucinich as critical of the proposed plan to send humans back to the Moon and on to Mars: “Maybe what they’re getting ready for is a war on Mars. We have to keep an eye on them since they’re into unilateral [action] and preemption.” Kucinich added that he is a “strong supporter” of NASA but that he also wants “to explore planet Earth and planet D.C.” (I know DC is small, but sometimes it can seem like a whole other world.)
By Jeff Foust on 2004 January 9 at 4:13 pm ET Reuters reports that Rep. Dick Gephardt, one of the Democratic presidential candidates, commented on the rumors about a new Bush space policy on Friday. “I have nothing against NASA programs. I’ve been a supporter of them because I think you need that vision out there, especially for young people,” he was quoted as saying. “But you can’t shortchange the research that we need for things that need to happen here on Earth… That’s why energy research is so vital.” Indeed, Gephardt announced last year “Apollo 21″, a plan to achieve American energy independence in a decade, modeled on Kennedy’s manned Moon mission goal.
By Jeff Foust on 2004 January 9 at 10:56 am ET If you’re curious about what the far left wing (and I mean far; people that make Kucinich look like a conservative) thinks about Bush’s rumored human exploration plan, visit this site. Favorite quote: “i would do whatever is necessary to be incarcerated on some type of moon prison.” See, they’re fans, too!
By Jeff Foust on 2004 January 9 at 9:58 am ET Even Martians are curious about the electability of Howard Dean…
By Jeff Foust on 2004 January 9 at 9:46 am ET You would expect that the news of a new space policy that could include human missions to the Moon and/or Mars would be big news. Indeed, it was on the front page of today’s Washington Post newspaper. However, as you can see, it had to compete with some other, more important news to most Washington-area residents. After all, what’s the big deal about a Moon mission if Joe Gibbs is going to be coaching the mediocre Redskins again?
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