You are not logged in.
I read The Case for Mars a few years ago so I've forgotten some of the details about why NASA was against it. What I remember is Zubrin being pretty hard on NASA because instead of finding the most economical way to get the job done they wanted to implement all of their "projects". Some special engine that costs billions alone that some NASA engineer has been working on and this other really neat thing that does the job at 100 times the cost of some other and blah blah blah. If we have to use the Russian Energia rocket to get mars direct going is anyone, other than NASA, going to care?
I share your frustration. George Bush senior wanted to go to mars and NASA screwed it up with it's $450 billion plan. I don't think I've heard George Bush junior even mention the space program since he's been in office until recently and I think the motivation is that the Chinese put a man in orbit and say they are going to put a base on the moon. I get the feeling that no one at NASA ever mentioned the Mars Direct plan to the President but then why would they? I personally think NASA needs a management overhaul. Get someone in there who can set the standard a bit higher and do it by working with other countries: EU? Japan? Russia? to share some of the costs.
I guess you forgot to include the link that shows absolute proof of your claim? Too many nuts, not enough comets.
I think going to the moon is a waste of time, money, and resources. It's not on the way to Mars, it's the wrong way and totally unnecessary, like a speed bump on the freeway. There is little scientific and civilian interest in the moon in my opinion. The average person wants to see us venture out into the universe and make new discoveries so I think at first many people will applaud the idea because they don't know that by going to the moon, again, sigh..., we are just postponing the human landing on Mars. I can see a Mars mission being put off time and again because of the need to constantly re-supply and fix things on the moon base. What are they going to do there anyway? The scientific interest is in Mars! Not the moon! The only reason President Bush wants a moon base is because the Chinese are planning one. Big deal! Let them go to the moon and lets go to Mars and upstage them once again.
The simple reason is that Mars may have life or hold fossil evidence of life. Add to that the incredible idea that one day Mars could be terraformed and become another place in the universe as beautiful as the earth and the idea quickly fades of having a few poor astronauts stuck doing nothing on a desolate and dead moon.
It's tough to remain optimistic but perhaps they really know what they are doing. Maybe they are preparing for a manned mission in 2018 when Mars is again only 35.9 million miles away. Hopefully they are. There is still time.