My former mother-in-law was convinced that the Apollo moon landing was an elaborate hoax. I wonder what she’ll think of this (Washington Post):
NASA unveiled plans yesterday to set up a small and ultimately self-sustaining settlement of astronauts at the south pole of the moon sometime around 2020 — the first step in an ambitious plan to resume manned exploration of the solar system.
The long-awaited proposal envisions initial stays of a week by four-person crews, followed by gradually longer visits until power and other supplies are in place to make a permanent presence possible by 2024.
Okay… I confess. When George Bush announced the “New Vision for Space Exploration“, I didn’t pay a lot of attention. Rather, I saw it as a “happy talk” response to the shuttle Columbia tragedy the year before, and the ensuing discussions about whether the shuttle program should be scrapped, that the risks were too great, or that NASA was a financial sinkhole.
The NASA plan grew out of President Bush’s Vision for Space Exploration, which was announced in 2004 and calls for sending astronauts back to the moon and later to Mars.
Since NASA’s plans are nearly a verbatim regurgitation of Bush’s “New Vision…”, it seems pretty obvious that this has been in the works for a very long time. I wonder whose vision this actually was, and whether it includes better plans than this for the little problem of funding:
Congress almost unanimously embraced the general plan last year in an authorization bill, but questions remain about its funding. NASA is counting on redirecting billions of dollars from the space shuttle and international space station programs to fund development of a new spaceship, but some critics have complained that the agency is already cutting back its science programs to pay for the moon-Mars project.
Obviously, the usual devil is in the dollar details, making 2020 seem impossibly far away in more ways than one. Still — I’m pretty sure my Adorable Child (AC) will live see this particular dream come to life; I just hope it’s not too late for me.
I like big dreams.