I agree that everything you've said, in general, is true. That is why it needs to be broken up into several major milestones - as proposed. Also, I don't mean to advocate pork barrel spending, but there is a way that can help NASA achieve fairly stable political support for a sustained mission and that is to learn the lesson of the supercollider. Initially, most of the politicians thought the supercollider was a great idea - as long as their state had a chance of winning the big bucks. But, once most of the money was awarded to Texas - support evaporated everywhere else. So, the lesson is for NASA to spread money (hopefully wisely) to as many states as is reasonably possible. Spread out the contracts and you increase the political support.

-----Original Message----- From: Brent Watson [mailto:brentjwatson@yahoo.com] Sent: Wednesday, January 14, 2004 3:21 PM To: Utah Astronomy Subject: RE: [Utah-astronomy] President Bush's speech

--- Kim Hyatt <khyatt@smithlayton.com> wrote:

...

Yes, Dale, that's pretty much what I had in mind. I also don't care if it takes 5, 10 or 50 years to get to the Moon (and beyond) - I just would like to see a commitment that includes a rational approach to manned space exploration and steady progress. Both are difficult to maintain in our culture, but not impossible.

This is exactly the reason we need to push. This country has no stomach for long projects. We are too driven by today, and short term results. Long term projects have no chance of completion. Even if this plan is maintained by Pres. Bush, it will be changed/modified/cancelled/ignored by the next president who has better places to spend the money.

...

Perhaps more success with missions such as Spirit will gain support for the process.

The Apollo missions were cancelled in spite of the successes they were having. The feeling was that we were spending too much money on space, and not enough on social programs. Our push to the Moon lasted a mere 12+ years, and was cancelled. President Kennedy's speech was in January of 1960. The project was cancelled before the flight of Apollo 17 in December of 1972.

CNN yesterday morning was already making fun of the Spirit with comments like "We now know that Mars is made of dirt and rocks." "The rover will now scoop up some dirt." The chuckles heard in the background illustrated the tolerance we have for space projects even as short as our current Mars probes.

It is spectacle, and rapid fire achievement that inspire America.

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