Giant leap II: Bush to announce plan for Mars, Moon missions
In an attempt to begin buidling a legacy (no one really wants to be known for bombing two Third World countries back into the Stone Age), George W. Bush is gearing up for a concerted effort to deflect attention from his failed foreign policy.
President Bush will outline a plan next week for returning humans to the moon as preparation for exploring deeper space destinations, including Mars, administration sources said late Thursday.
The president's plan calls for phasing out the U.S. role in the international space station and retiring the aging space shuttle fleet, according to sources who spoke on condition of anonymity.
At the same time, the president is not expected to commit to sending a human to Mars anytime soon, but instead will lay out a series of goals aimed at helping NASA recover from the Columbia disaster. It will include robotic missions like the recent landing of a robotic rock hound on the Red Planet....
The policy, which bears some resemblance to a proposal made by Bush's father almost 15 years ago, was developed by a team overseen by Vice President Dick Cheney.
Administration officials see the initiative as a vital national security measure that would lead to development of new technologies and potential new sources of energy.
The president's announcement, which is tentatively scheduled for the middle of next week after his return from the Summit of the Americas in Mexico, will call for exploring multiple destinations, with the lunar outpost being a possible first step.
Of course, the Great Leap Forward did wonders for Mao Xedong's People's Republic of China, didn't it? Version 2.0 promises to be something completely different. Of course, included among the details left unclarified is whether the Bush plan will involve the forced repatration of thousands to different areas of the country, or whether his jobs program will involve political re-education camps for the masses. However, "struggle sessions" for unreconstructed Democrats are rumored to have a prominent place in the Administration's proposal.
Welcome to the New World Order, indeed....
