I don't always agree with George W. Bush on everything, sorrry Ed, but I
think George was using the statement "the moon as launchpad to Mars"
in an allegorical sense, not a literal sense.
I think George Bush suggestion that the moon serve
as a "launchpad" to Mars was meant as a symbolic idea; I think he meant experience
gained at a moonbase would serve well for those men & women going onto Mars later,
thus serving as a symbolic "launchpad".

Look! Humanity has been stuck in LEO for thirty years! Do we wait another 30 years?
GWB wants humanity to leave LEO again and return to deep-space in another 11 years
(384,000 km from Earth is better than being stuck 384km above Earth in endless loops).

There are rockets NOW available [ATLAS-5, DELTA-IV] that can put upto 56,000Ibs in LEO.
(1) Two launches [112,000Ibs assembled in LEO] and you've got large habitation-modules
on their way to the moon's surface.
(2) Two more launches [112,000Ibs assembled in LEO] you could send an upgraded LEM to the moon and park it low-lunar orbit to await a crew.
(3) One launch of a DELTA-IV can send a 20,000Ib CSM with three crew to LLO to dock
with the upgraded LEM...then it's down to the surface.

That doesn't sound like a budget buster stretched over 11 years, does it?

There's plenty of science left to be done on the moon.
There's plenty of science to be done on Mars.

Jacob

"We choose to go to the moon, and do those OTHER THINGS, not because they are easy, but because they are hard."

John F. Kennedy