George HW Bush dream Verus our Bush Jnr's vision

Mars_B4_Moon · 2006-09-08 12:28:55

His Daddy also liked the idea of going to Mars while keeping dinosaur's like Shuttle flying but SEI was never the answer: it was simply too big and cost too much. Moreover, you don't need to spend over $380 billion to do Moon and Mars missions, back in 1991 President Bush Snr also declared that he would support a Space Exploration Initiative program leading to a Mars Landing by 2014, his vision went nowhere.

2004, President George W. Bush (Jnr) unveiled his new plan for the reinvigoration of the U.S. space program, getting the Shuttle back in action (after Columbia disintegrates over Texas killing all astronauts), returning to the Moon and doing manned missions to Mars. Since his speech Bush hasn't mentioned the word NASA in any significant way, leading some to wonder whether he remains supportive of his own policy initiative, perhaps Mars hasn't been mentioned since Mr. Bush's early announcement, because polls showed Americans had little enthusiasm for it and are more concerned with other issues ( the deficit, Iraq war, Katrina clean-up...).

some memorable quotes from Bush-Jnr,
"For NASA, space is still a high priority."
'It's clearly a budget. It's got a lot of numbers in it.'
"Mars is essentially in the same orbit...Mars is somewhat the same distance from the Sun, which is very important. We have seen pictures where there are canals, we believe, and water.
If there is water, that means there is oxygen. If oxygen, that means we can breathe."

Yang Liwei Rocket · 2006-09-08 13:15:32

He got re-elected so the chances of the VSE becoming real are much greater than his father's,
but skeptics will denounce the "astronomical costs" of these trips and term it a "childhood dream."

Commodore · 2006-09-08 13:26:24

Bush wasn't updating policy for votes, he was updating it for the future of NASA. Thats why he doesn't talk about it. That and the dramatic charges are going to happen after he leaves office anyway.

Mars_B4_Moon · 2006-09-08 16:55:38

I for one would very much like a Zubrin style mission or CaLV launch to the red planet. The probelm with GW Jnr's vision is that unmanned scientific missions, after many years of substantial growth, have been chopped down because of NASA’s need to spend large sums on resurrecting the shuttle program, completing the space station and developing a dodgy Stick CEV launcher (Ares-1). As Michael Griffin, the NASA administrator, sees it, too many of our American scientists are unwilling to accept that new reality and end up offering advice that falls beyond the priorities set by the President's return to the Moon mission and Congress priorities.

Some people believed his Daddy would get to the Red Planet
http://www.hyperorg.com/blogger/images/foolbushlr.mpg
How will Jnr's vision be much different ?

publiusr · 2006-10-27 12:49:04

Nothing has been chopped--only put off. When Ares flies you will have from now to doomsday for science missions.

How many probes have we launched in the past 30 years?

Plenty

How many shuttle replacements?

Zero.

Time for the white coats to take the head shot. Engineers have had X-33. X-34, OSP taken down--while we have bomb disposal robots on Mars.

I vote for a 10 year moratorium on probes.

Mars_B4_Moon · 2007-10-22 05:59:02

WELDON RALLIES REPS FOR $1BN FOR NASA
http://blogs.orlandosentinel.com/news_s … lies-.html

Congressman Dave Weldon from Melbourne dashed out a letter this week to his House colleagues who hold the purse strings for NASA, imploring them to support a $1 billion emergency funding amendment for the space agency. The amendment, which was recently passed in the Senate with the support of Senators Bill Nelson (D-FL), Barbara Mikulski (D-MD), and Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-Texas), is meant to reimburse NASA for money spent to get the shuttle program up and running after the Columbia disaster. The real aim of cash now, Mr. Weldon points out, is to help close the gap between the retirement of the shuttle program in 2010 and the launch of the manned Orion spacecraft in 2015. While it is unclear if the funds are sufficient to roll back the launch of Orion to 2013, as many hope, one NASA insider said that the money will at least "keep alive the hope" the gap can be shortened. Many NASA backers on the Hill say they expect the real battle will not be with their colleagues in Congress but with the President, who has already said he will veto the entire Commerce, Justice, Science and Related Agencies Appropriations Act. His reasoning: "it includes an irresponsible and excessive level of spending and ... other objectionable provisions." Most of his complaints center on issues with Justice Department program funding, but a few NASA budget lines also came in for criticism. The real fight is going to come after the veto. And no one is making any guesses which way that one will go.

cIclops · 2007-10-22 06:07:56

Interesting view, the budget is a bigger mystery than the rest of the universe

Copied over to the budget thread

Tom Kalbfus · 2007-10-22 09:41:04

Perhaps Dave Weldon should go directly to the State Legislatures for funding thereby bypassing the Federal Government and the President's Veto, it doesn't have to be a direct appropriation for NASA, each state or an association of states can have a seperate contract with the NASA contractors for more work on items related to Project Constellation, this will advance the timetable without having to get the President to sign it. We just have to find a bunch of agreeable Governors and State Legislatures instead. The stem cell research initiative in California sets a precident for this. If each state averages about $20 million in funding, that should be enough. There is a reason why we have a Federal form of government and multiple levels of funding after all.

EuroLauncher · 2007-11-26 09:33:40

The space Review
http://www.thespacereview.com/article/1001/1
by Jeff Foust
Monday, November 19, 2007

Mars Wars: The Rise and Fall of the Space Exploration Initiative
by Thor Hogan
NASA, 2007
softcover, 188 pp., illus.
NASA SP-2007-4410

Next January will mark the fourth anniversary of President George W. Bush’s speech at NASA Headquarters that unveiled the Vision for Space Exploration, the long-term plan that gave the space agency a new direction, away from the space shuttle and space station and towards a human return to the Moon and, eventually, human missions to Mars. At that time the announcement drew comparisons to the Space Exploration Initiative (SEI), the last major effort by a president to reshape the direction of NASA, with corresponding concerns that the Vision would meet a similar, unfortunate fate. Yet the Vision is alive and well today (despite some concerns about its implementation), while SEI had effectively been dead long before it could reach its fourth anniversary. What caused SEI to fail, and what lessons did its failure provide future initiatives, like the Vision? These are questions explored in depth by Thor Hogan’s history of SEI, Mars Wars.....

cIclops · 2007-11-26 10:48:37

The book is available free online here (PDF 3MB 107 pages)

Tom Kalbfus · 2007-11-27 12:15:15

WELDON RALLIES REPS FOR $1BN FOR NASA
http://blogs.orlandosentinel.com/news_s … lies-.html
Congressman Dave Weldon from Melbourne dashed out a letter this week to his House colleagues who hold the purse strings for NASA, imploring them to support a $1 billion emergency funding amendment for the space agency. The amendment, which was recently passed in the Senate with the support of Senators Bill Nelson (D-FL), Barbara Mikulski (D-MD), and Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-Texas), is meant to reimburse NASA for money spent to get the shuttle program up and running after the Columbia disaster. The real aim of cash now, Mr. Weldon points out, is to help close the gap between the retirement of the shuttle program in 2010 and the launch of the manned Orion spacecraft in 2015. While it is unclear if the funds are sufficient to roll back the launch of Orion to 2013, as many hope, one NASA insider said that the money will at least "keep alive the hope" the gap can be shortened. Many NASA backers on the Hill say they expect the real battle will not be with their colleagues in Congress but with the President, who has already said he will veto the entire Commerce, Justice, Science and Related Agencies Appropriations Act. His reasoning: "it includes an irresponsible and excessive level of spending and ... other objectionable provisions." Most of his complaints center on issues with Justice Department program funding, but a few NASA budget lines also came in for criticism. The real fight is going to come after the veto. And no one is making any guesses which way that one will go.

That's what happens when they make a pork sandwich and send it to the "White House". Congressman X: "I want $1 billion dollars more for NASA, and also a convention center and bridge with my name on it, and my buddy here says, he also wants some money to pay the medical bills of the financially disabled, we'll roll it all together and ask you to vote up and down on it."

cIclops · 2007-11-27 12:27:25

It never got to the President, it is still in the Senate and may even have died there. If it does go ahead, it will probably be rolled up into one of those omnibus absurdities and deserve to be vetoed. NASA deserves not only $1 billion to repay Columbia and Katrina costs but also full funding on its own merits.

EuroLauncher · 2007-12-27 05:10:52

Where should the space program be heading?
http://blogs.orlandosentinel.com/news_o … ld-th.html
Huckabee would send Hillary to Mars?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VxSADjBN5_k

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#1 2006-09-08 12:28:55

Re: George HW Bush dream Verus our Bush Jnr's vision

#2 2006-09-08 13:15:32

Re: George HW Bush dream Verus our Bush Jnr's vision

#3 2006-09-08 13:26:24

Re: George HW Bush dream Verus our Bush Jnr's vision

#4 2006-09-08 16:55:38

Re: George HW Bush dream Verus our Bush Jnr's vision

#5 2006-10-27 12:49:04

Re: George HW Bush dream Verus our Bush Jnr's vision

#6 2007-10-22 05:59:02

Re: George HW Bush dream Verus our Bush Jnr's vision

#7 2007-10-22 06:07:56

Re: George HW Bush dream Verus our Bush Jnr's vision

#8 2007-10-22 09:41:04

Re: George HW Bush dream Verus our Bush Jnr's vision

#9 2007-11-26 09:33:40

Re: George HW Bush dream Verus our Bush Jnr's vision

#10 2007-11-26 10:48:37

Re: George HW Bush dream Verus our Bush Jnr's vision

#11 2007-11-27 12:15:15

Re: George HW Bush dream Verus our Bush Jnr's vision

#12 2007-11-27 12:27:25

Re: George HW Bush dream Verus our Bush Jnr's vision

#13 2007-12-27 05:10:52

Re: George HW Bush dream Verus our Bush Jnr's vision

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