Six Years Too Late
President Bush claims that he’s concerned about spending.
Yeah, right.
The freepers aren’t impressed, either:
Gawd, that’s almost like Jeffrey Dahlmer pushing for a vegetarian diet.
…Bush control spending? Start with that prescription drug extravaganza?
…The biggest government spender since LBJ ask for spending limits? LOL
I’d like to think he’s serious, but if so, it’s too bad that it took a Democrat congress for him to get religion.
It will be interesting to see how this plays out if he is. If he vetoes appropriations bills, as Bill Clinton did in 1994 (when he didn’t get enough spending from a Republican congress), who will get the blame in the media for “shutting down the government”? I think we know. As it was then, it will be the political party that starts with an “R.”
Reconsidering
One of the key trades made in the Apollo program was the decision of where to do a rendezvous in preparation for the lunar surface mission. Many credit the decision to do it in earth orbit as a key contributor toward achieving the goal of doing it by the end of the decade. But the quickest way to get the job done wasn’t necessarily the best. It looks like NASA is now considering one of the other options originally considered–a lunar orbit rendezvous. And it may be that the Ares IV vehicle described will eliminate the need for the Ares V. This is a step in the right direction, but still much more expensive than it need be, and offering much too little for the money.
[Update in the afternoon]
D’oh!
As is pointed out in comments, in fact lunar orbit rendezvous was the method chosen in Apollo. I was thinking of the reconfiguration in LEO prior to lunar injection, but that didn’t involve rendezvous.
These Are Your Spiders
…on drugs. This is pretty funny.
Lunar Zionists
I wrote about a lunar Zion several years ago. I guess I was just ahead of my time:
Daniel Yaron, CEO of Crazyshop, the company which markets moon property in Israel, explained to Ynet why Israelis are interested in purchasing land on the moon: “People decide to buy land on the moon for two reasons: One is the gimmick of giving a gift
Stupid Smart People
Jane Galt talks about the not-so Bright Daniel Dennett (who I think is brilliant in many ways, but certainly not this one). He really does seem clueless about human nature, and the need for belief systems.
Libration
Here’s a cool movie, displaying the variation in lunar distance and angle from the earth. It’s explained here.
The Wolverines
..really need to try to avoid having major figures associated with their program die shortly before big games. First Bo and Ohio State, and then Ford and the Rose Bowl.
Hey, I’ll grab my excuses wherever I can get them.
Not Hip
The Space Review is back after a holiday hiatus, and Jeff Foust writes about young peoples’ attitude toward NASA:
The article cites a study published last fall by Dittmar Associates that found relatively low levels of interest among Americans 18-25 years old, part of a cohort of the population often called
America, Alone?
James McCormick has a long, but useful review of Mark Steyn’s book