'Moon Stuck'

Send Bush and Cheney to the moon.

George Bush senior trotted the Apollo 11 astronauts out with visions of a return to the moon. No funding, no moon. George Bush junior, like father, like son- no funding, no moon.

It's still a national disgrace that Nixon dismantled our space infrastructure and put a dagger in the heart of aerospace education

China IS going to the moon and they're staying (with all the military connotations that implies as well). And anyone notice that a Brit is building a spaceport in New Mexico. Wake up, America.

Bush Jr only proposed this mission in the first place to distract everyone from his Disaster in Iraq. Try as he might, he'll always be remembered as the Worst President in American History, and no "Grand Visions" copied from other presidents will change that. He's no John F. Kennedy. He's not even a Millard Fillmore.

NASA is a joke; flying the same circles for the past 30 years going no where fast. It's no wonder many young people today don't believe we ever went to the moon. The NASA scientists and technicians of today can't hold a candle to the driven visionaries of the 60's. The astronauts of today are just flying bus drivers. The "real" astronauts walked on the moon.

Since when does Bush listen to scientists? If scientists say there is no benefit from another moon landing, Bush will want to go even more. I'm sure he'll approach this like he approaches everything else. From his gut.

Militarily, it would be a monumental mistake to allow the Chinese, Russians and others to establish bases on the moon, while we sit and twiddle our thumbs. After all, who would you rather see on the moon holding a big rock over our heads, The Russians, the Chinese, or us? Of course, I think a trip to an asteroid is also a good idea, for the exploration and science, for the experience and for the advancement of humankind.

Skip the moon and the asteroid and lets go straight to Mars. Even though the ability to get to Mars safely is a ways off, at least we would not be wasting time going to the Moon or and asteroid.

George bush is a flaming IDIOT

As long as we are a role, hopefully more Cheney/Bush plans will be rejected.

NASA AND BUSH are both morons!
We should of been already on the moon a long time ago and had a base there!
Instead of mars!!!
The Chinese will go there and built a base! But what NASA don't realize is that if we built a base there we can shoot weapons at lighter weight. MORONS!!!!!!
NASA WAKE UP AND START DOING YOUR DAM JOB!
And if the Chinese get there sooner then us believe me Americans will be annoyed as hell.

What will happen is China will go to the moon, and then Americans will be "completely surprised" and then we'll be rushing like hell to get there and to Mars. Probably nothing will happen until we're embarrassed. Then, things will change fast.

We should have erected several bases on the moon long ago.

We should concentrate on building a time machine. Then no matter what China does, we can go back before them and stop it. We can also go back to 1952 and buy all of the Mickey Mantle rookie cards and finance a trip to Pluto just in case the Brazilians have any plans. We see the way you are looking at Pluto Brazil.

Send Bush, Cheney, Rice and Rumsfeld to the moon with no water or food.

There is no justification for sending a man to Mars. What would they learn that we have not already discovered with unmanned missions? Nothing.

People are so quick to criticize NASA, without knowing a thing about the agency beyond blasting men into space. They do far more than launch space shuttles, you know. And they do it on a rather small budget. All the goevernments science agencies have been gettin shafted now for 20 years.

Most people don't realize that one of the primary reasons for Bush wanting to return to the moon is for alternative fuel resources, primarily Helium-3 which is only found on the moon. There are about 1 million tons of helium-3 on the moon. 25 tons of the stuff could supply a years worth of enery to the US. However we need to get a good understanding of what the consequences of mining the moon would be.

Yes! I have been patiently waiting for NASA to finish giving lip service to Bush's political stunts and start working toward a space policy that makes sense. And what better summary of the Bush legacy than: "the Bush administration has laid out grandiose plans but has done little to provide the funding to realize them."

Go with the moon. It is the high ground and speaking in military terms, you do not want the chinese sitting poised over the entire earth....watching...! There's plenty of good science available there as well. I guarantee it--if the Chinese get there first, they claim the whole thing as theres. Look to history, my friends.

Sometimes there are posts of intellect on here and then...well, you get it. For instance, some weird statement criticizing everyone in NASA from the astronauts to the technicians....hmmmm, wonder where that poster gets their line of information to base this brilliant post on? Then, a poster seems to be angry at NASA for not turning the Moon into a military base to shoot "lighter weight" missles. Sheesh. I wish more people would actually read some science instead of science fiction before posting. In truth, NASA takes direction from the VP directly, and the WH. It operates annually on less than 1% of the national budget. If you want NASA to do a better job, build better vehicles, do more science, whatever else you desire, please write the WH, your senators and congress. Whining on this board does nothing. Mindless and unread postings only embarass yourselves.

The moon has a lot more likelyhood of being developed in the near future than mars. The only thing we have to gain from Mars at this point is knowledge. (Most of it just being environmental or related to planetary developement and not highly profitable.) A great deal of that can be done remotely for far less cost. The moon doesn't have a great deal to offer, but the cost of getting there is way lower and the potential for commercial return is way higher. They need to funnel money for the mars missions into better robotics for exploration and lunar missions.