Vice President Spiro Agnew's Mars plan (that came from von Braun) called for a small Mars base around 1984. His plan (like the elder Bush's SEI) was dead-on-arrival. John Kerry's acceptance of the transparent lies concerning radiation danger from the Cassini spacecraft makes me believe he is NOT a friend of the Space Program. If Kerry is elected President then that will knock back the Space Program another 4-8 years. NASA and the aerospace industry have a big problem with the average age of its work force. A lot of the folks doing aerospace are in their 50s. The guys who did the early ballistic missile work, Apollo project and Viking are long gone (dead, retired, quit or fired). Most of them took their professional knowledge with them (worth billions of dollars). If the folks doing aerospace now leave with their knowledge and don't pass it on to the next generation then the show is over.

The bottom line: If we don't do something interesting in aerospace soon (next 10 years) so as to attract a new generation of engineers then the United States will NEVER send anyone to Mars, the Moon or anywhere. We won't have the raw technical ability. This will also seriously impact our future economy.

Gary