EDITORIAL

Alienation?

Mars can wait; now is not the time to return to the moon.

by Michelle Walter, editor

America has become entranced by the heavens once again. This January, NASA successfully landed two Exploratory Rovers, Spirit and Opportunity, on Mars. This mission is one of many NASA has planned for the next decade, the primary goal being to determine if Mars ever possessed liquid water and possibly life. The Bush administration chose this time to unveil their new Space Exploration program, with visions of sending humans back to the moon and then to Mars. Manned-missions in the US space program have come to a halt since the Space Shuttle Columbia disaster in February 2003, but President Bush feels now is the time to get NASA back in gear and lay the ground work for the next two decades of space exploration.

One of Bush's reasons for the new space program is the idea that "the desire to explore and understand is part of our character." The history of the world is based on quests of discovery and conquering all that is possible; critics have accused Bush of doing this, under fears of losing the moon to China or other countries and the military power and resources it could provide. Bush also wishes for "other nations to join us on this journey."

This is an excellent time to get NASA back in order, after the succession of losses has it experienced in the past five years. Bush was right in instructing NASA administrator Sean O'Keefe to investigate the safety of the space shuttle and to work out NASA's financial and administrative issues. However, it was a bit premature to outline a plan for the next two decades involving retiring the space shuttle, developing a new manned exploration vehicle to place humans on the moon for long periods of time, and using the moon as a stepping stone for exploring the rest of our solar system. An AP survey conducted after Bush announced his new program found that more Americans want to spend money on programs such as education and health care than on space programs. Getting humans back in space will be expensive. Bush proposed only augmenting NASA's five-year budget by one billion dollars, for a total of $12 billion to get the program started. Money allocated to programs such as the Hubble Space Telescope will be given to the moon/Mars program, ending the life of the telescope that has provided us with the most stunning images of the universe ever seen several years earlier than expected. Knowledgeable critics say it will take much more than this amount, possibly hundreds of billions of dollars.

Bush's plan is an ambitious one, but comes at the wrong time. Further space exploration is probably in the future of all men and women, but right now our country and government needs to focus our efforts on making life better for everyone on our own planet. Expensive missions to other worlds should be saved for a more financially stable time.

For more information online, see:
Mars Exploration Rover Mission
Bush's Vision for Space Exploration