Oh - I just pissed myself when GWB said that the moon is a launch pad to the rest of the solar system and would make space flight cheaper.

It's complete bull. There is zero benefit in going to the moon first. If you're going to go to the moon, you can go straight to mars. The Delta V is almost identical.

The man is a moron, and whoever thought up this magnificent folly of a space initiative needs to be used as accoustic suppresion material for the DIV heavy test later this year.

Zubrin may be bold and brave in his guestimations of cost for Mars Direct - but he is damn right about one thing. You set a program to do this in 10 years max - or you'll never achieve it at all.

Doug