Shouldn't it be Republicans that are against needless government spending, though? I'm a Republican and I'm all for slashing NASA down to nothing and privatizing space exploration instead of keeping it a government monopoly. We'd probably have had bases on the moon by now if the government didn't prevent or limit private companies from exploring space.
Governments have often pioneered new territories. One of the big achievements of the Bush Administration has been making NASA institutionally more friendly to space commerce, and I believe that NASA returning to the Moon will make it easier, not harder, for private companies to also go there.
I've never been a fan of NASA. This does seem like a realistic proposal. Unfortunately I don't think that true space exploration is any more or less safer under any of the three candidates for President, frankly.
Seem, yes. You have to dig into the details to find the looming disaster. Which various bloggers have been doing. I don't expect this design to get to the moon.
Alas, life isn't leaving me time to write up a real answer to that. Short version: a vague mission with lots of political pressures leads to a pork-driven design and lots of short cuts. Even if it works as designed it's too damn expensive for what we're going to get.
There are two single issues on which I very strongly disagree with the Democrats that keep me from voting Democrat, even given a lackluster Republican candidate (like McCain).
The first is missile defense. I cannot vote for a party which regards deliberately increasing our vulnerability to enemy nuclear attack as a good idea. Relying on the implicit rationality of our enemies to protect us strikes me as suicidal, especially given tne nature of our currrent enemies.
The second is expansion into space. Centuries from now, the human sphere will encompass the whole Solar System, and any culture restricted mainly to Earth will be a backwater. And the Democrats don't get that. They would toss away our current lead in space and instead spend the money on utterly ephermal concerns. And it isn't even that much money.
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But really, that Democrat line sounded a little unwarranted. Does the party have a record of slashing our moonbase budget?
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Starting with Carter, they have a record of cutting back on manned space exploration. Obama has specifically stated he wants to cut NASA's budget.
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Why not?
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Long version can be found here:
http://www.transterrestrial.com/archives/2008/01/ares_woes_ongoi.html#010459
and more discussion here:
http://www.transterrestrial.com/archives/space/
(You'd probably like the guy's non-space stuff too)
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The first is missile defense. I cannot vote for a party which regards deliberately increasing our vulnerability to enemy nuclear attack as a good idea. Relying on the implicit rationality of our enemies to protect us strikes me as suicidal, especially given tne nature of our currrent enemies.
The second is expansion into space. Centuries from now, the human sphere will encompass the whole Solar System, and any culture restricted mainly to Earth will be a backwater. And the Democrats don't get that. They would toss away our current lead in space and instead spend the money on utterly ephermal concerns. And it isn't even that much money.
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