Re: NASA Rushing To Mars As Per Bush's Policy

From: Greg Kuperberg (greg_at_see-web-page.edu)
Date: 02/23/05 

Date: Wed, 23 Feb 2005 16:45:14 +0000 (UTC)

In article <0m5p115atmhiga2ctrdl06deraje7pmcpf@4ax.com>,
Fred J. McCall <fmccall@earthlink.net> wrote:
>greg@see-web-page.edu (Greg Kuperberg) wrote:
>: Lifting heavy spacecraft and fuel out of the Earth's gravity is
>: expensive. Spacecraft assembled and provisioned on the moon could
>: escape its far lower gravity using far less energy, and thus, far
>: less cost. Also, the moon is home to abundant resources. Its soil
>: contains raw materials that might be harvested and processed into
>: rocket fuel or breathable air.
>:
>:Bush did not merely toss out these strange comments in an interview as
>:Quayle did his. Rather, they are official national space policy!
>And what is 'strange' about them, other than that they're true and you
>don't like it?

The point, of course, is that in any practical sense they aren't true.
Even though Bush offered this as the main reason to return to the moon,
NASA has no plans to assemble or provision any spacecraft there. If it
did, the cost would be far more, not far less. And NASA has no plans
to harvest or process lunar regolith into rocket fuel or air. Again,
if it did, the cost would be far more, not far less.

So the stated reason to return to the moon bears no resemblance to what
NASA will actually do when it gets there. Or rather, if NASA returns to
the moon at all. Given that the stated purpose is bogus and ignorant, the
project might well be cancelled or stretched into oblivion in a few years. 

-- 
  /\  Greg Kuperberg (UC Davis)
 /  \ Home page: http://www.math.ucdavis.edu/~greg/
 \  / Visit the Math ArXiv Front at http://front.math.ucdavis.edu/
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