I love the space program, including the manned space program, but Bush setting these Mars and Moon goals is incompetent. First, Bush doesn't have a record of adequately funding the government's expenses, so it's not responsible of him to add huge new questionable programs. Secondly, the goals of the current space program make far better scientific sense. Nasa's current plan was to develop relatively inexpensive instrumental and robotic explorers to extend our space tools, technology, and scientific knowledge at the same time on a realistic (i.e, the current) budget. At the same time, Nasa's current plan was to develop the vehicles necessary to service a permanent orbiting space station in a practical, inexpensive, and efficient way. The two vehicles needed were a personnel launch vehicle which doubles as an escape vehicle, and a space truck (essentially an inexpensive to operate, large unmanned shuttle). By pursuing these logical (as opposed to hair brained) goals, we could afford to continue to develop our ability to do work in space without busting the budget and ending up with the whole program cancelled. The space station needs to have vehicles designed to work with it as a system, both an economic system and a technological system. Over time, we would learn so much more about living in space, repairing a space habitat, handling emergencies, etc, knowledge that would provide a solid base for further exploration, while concentrating on the primary value of current space work, which is observation and interaction WITH THE EARTH. The spinoffs are just so much better with the current plan. Robotic exploration forces innovation in artifical intelligence, sensors, mobile robotics, telecommunications, inertial guidance, actuators, visual recognition systems, and a host of technologies which have direct industrial application in the real world. The spinoffs from the ISS include not only the science done in orbit, but all the medical insight from the changes that occur in humans and animals in low gravity isolated environments. As life support research improves conditions, there is a real possibility for a lot more people to go into orbit, to do science, and eventually as tourists. Let's do Britney in orbit before a man on Mars (first things first!). What I want to see from our space program is a solidly functioning space station and well designed vehicles to service it economically, and an increasing number of robotic probes doing real exploration of the nearer planets. Why can't we have a fun and practical goal, like a probe that can land on the moon, drill a deep core sample, and fly it back to earth for geologists to examine? Let's conquer the step of a robotic probe that can land and come back. There is so much development that can be pursued affordably in our current space program, but Bush has to stick his nose in there and set up incompetent demands he won't even levy the taxes to fund. It's just sad. If Bush wants do do something dramatic, let him fund a replacement for the shuttle Columbia, so the real space program can function now as it was designed to do, and fund the development of the vehicles to service the ISS. But no, it's just like Bush cancelling funding for hybrid cars, and covering it up by shooting off his mouth about the "hydrogen economy." Watch out because Bush's real agenda will probably be to cancel funding for the actual NASA development programs like robotic probes and the ISS service vehicles, and cover it up with talk about something big he won't actually fund.
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I agree that sending men in the direction of Mars is beyond our current technology and would be the equivalent of torturing them to death on national television. Furthermore I also agree that our space travel resources should be used for robotic exploration of the planets. But I am not worried. Why? because the whole project is not even to the preliminary engineering phase yet. That will take years. Needing money for the project will be a good excuse to de-orbit the ISS (the abandoned shopping mall in the sky) and shut-down/replace the Shuttle.
two blogs on the Mission to Mars