Where are the flying cars? I was promised flying cars!

[dolari]

So, Bush is considering announcing a moon mission or two.....and retiring the shuttle fleet?

No.

USE THE SHUTTLE TO BUILD A SPACE STATION THAT MATTERS. LIKE IT WAS SUPPOSED TO DO.

From there, you can start work on using it as a way station on the way to the moon. which can then be used as a launching point for Mars.

LIKE NASA PLANNED IN THE EARLY 70s.

Before Nixon slashed the budget, and made a Shuttle that didn't do it's job until we decided to finally build ISS in th early 90s. If NASA had had it's way we'd have gone to Mars by now. Granted there was a war going on back then, but we never revisited space after the war was over!

Not like it really matters. It's just a happy happy joy joy statement he can say to get reelected and ignore once he's back in.

Sorry about the rant, but space exploration is something really close to my heart.

Comments

well, ok

[inefficient.livejournal.com]

I'm not trying to say that we shouldn't re-enter orbit until we have a new orbiter, but I think there should be a humoungantic push right NOW for such a new orbiter with the majority of resources aimed at getting it designed, built off the ground and back home. In the time it takes to do that, we should be continuing the STS program as we have been operating it, minus the explosion per decade. Once we have that, the old shuttles could even be docked at ISS for hops to a waystation between ISS and the moon, or wherever. Don't throw the baby out with the bathwater, but it shouldn't be so difficult coming up with a better method of leaving the earth. In the time since the shuttle was born, computers have gone from 64K memory and the 8080 (or is it 8086 ... damn its something like that) chip to 1G Ram and nearly 3GHz processing speed! We've gone from PONG to Everquest, Final Fantasy XI etc. The advancements are so innumerable as to be uncountable. One has to think we can build a better mousetrap now? and in short order, right?

Re: well, ok

[jenndolari.livejournal.com]

I would hope so. My only fear is that the development process doesn't take TOO long. The Shuttle was proposed in 1963, and didn't get approved until 1975, and wasn't launched till 81. But that was with a war and humongously thrashed budgets.