Re: [amsat-bb] Re: Re The Moon

[Lou McFadin <w5did@xxxxxxxxx>]

Dan,
You echo my sentiments exactly.
What we need is some real commitment from the politicians not something 
they say during an election campaign.
As far as I can see none have made any real commitment.
I prefer to keep support for the space program out of the political 
arena.

On Mar 4, 2004, at 1:17 PM, Daniel Schultz wrote:

> Mike Hooles, G3LGR, wrote:
>
>> several months ago William and I raised the possibility of a lunar
>> transpodar and were howled down. I am sure that he is as pleased as
>> I am that it has resurfaced.
>
>
> This is hardly the same mission that you and William had proposed. Your
> proposal was to use an Amsat-built, Amsat-funded lunar landing 
> spacecraft.
> Bob's proposal is to send an ARISS-type payload along on a NASA manned 
> lunar
> mission. The degree of difficulty is several orders of magnitude less 
> than
> trying to get there by ourselves.
>
> If we do pull it off, it will be because of the relationship that Amsat
> has been able to build up with NASA over the past 20 years with the 
> Shuttle
> SAREX and International Space Station ARISS programs.
>
> Some people have argued on Amsat-bb that ARISS has contributed nothing 
> to
> AMSAT or amateur radio. If ARISS should eventually lead to an amateur 
> radio
> station/repeater on the moon with the next manned mission, they may 
> have to
> reconsider their position.
>
>
>> I know that many would prefer to see the unit on a US mission, but do 
>> not
>> forget that the Chinese are probably going there as well.
>> Now if we could get one on both.........
>
> The best way to get on a Chinese lunar mission would be to grow local 
> Amsat
> interest in the Chinese universities and among Chinese hams (what few 
> there
> are). Any flight hardware would probably have to be built by Chinese 
> hams or
> students in China. Now would be a good time to start planting those 
> seeds, if
> anyone has contacts in China.
>
>
> OZ1MY wrote:
>
>> May be the forthcoming Presidential election is the opportunity
>> we are looking for :-) Normally you can get candidates to promise
>> a lot of things during the campaign.
>
> Candidates do promise a lot, but they just as quickly forget after 
> taking
> office.
>
> There are much more serious issues at stake in the coming election 
> than Bush's
> moon proposal. Although I've been a space groupie since age 5, my 
> decision on
> who to vote for will not be influenced by Bush's promise of the moon. 
> Even if
> granted a second term, Bush will be out of office when the time comes 
> for a
> future administration to make the decision to go forward.
>
> NASA's recent history is to cancel projects at the first sign of 
> technical
> trouble or cost overrun. Does anybody remember the X-33, or the 
> National
> Aerospace Plane? If they had managed Apollo that way, the moon program 
> would
> have been canceled after the launch pad fire. Bush's plan starts out by
> grounding the shuttle and giving away the ISS to the international 
> partners.
> What assurance do we have that the Crew Exploration Vehicle will not be
> canceled if (when) it runs into budget or schedule problems?
>
> I can just see some future president or congress deciding that space
> exploration can wait for a few years while we use the money to solve 
> our
> problems down here on Earth. We will have no shuttle, no space 
> station, no
> reason to keep the program alive at all. Years will become decades, and
> perhaps centuries, before humanity resumes its reach into space. I do 
> hope
> that China has a successful space program because that is the last 
> hope for
> keeping the US program alive. Alexi Leonov has said that the USA and 
> the USSR
> have always had a joint space program, each one needed the other to 
> stay alive
> with their funding authorities.
>
> All in all, the space program is better off if it does NOT become an 
> election
> issue. There seems to be a bipartisan consensus that space should be 
> supported
> at about 0.7 % of the Federal budget. That is not likely to change no 
> matter
> who wins the White House in November. I'm not trying to start a 
> political
> discussion here. I'm just saying that it doesn't make sense to make a 
> voting
> decision in November based on which one offers the greatest support 
> for space
> exploration. It is not a big issue for either party.
>
> Dan Schultz N8FGV
>
>
>
> ----
> Sent via amsat-bb@amsat.org. Opinions expressed are those of the 
> author.
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>
>
Lou McFadin

----
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