Speaking of space policies, we know that the White House (with some input from Congress, NASA, and others) is working on one. They've already leaked that a return to the Moon is a component of it.

Based on what I've gleaned from certain media and private sources (the latter consists of people who know people who know other people who may have talked to some guy), levened with wild assed guesses based on my understanding of how this administration works and what its philosophy is.

(1) There will be a return to the Moon effort that will envison the first landing taking place in five to seven years. The effort will combine the resources of NASA, DOD (mainly the Missile Defense folks), DOE, academia,
and the private sector and will have technology R&D as its main focus.

(2) Mars will be given a nod, but no commitment. There'll probably be a plus up of techynology development, including Prometheus. The working target,
though, will be an expedition sometime in late 2010s.

(3) Lots of commerical incentives, including tax breaks, regulation reliefs, and buying services.

(4) Return to flight of the shuttle certainly, but a date certain when it will be retired (2012 is my guess) in it's current form. We'll see a shuttle derived SHLV built out of shuttle parts, though.

(5) ISS to go to six plus people and be used primarily for biomedical research to support deep space missions.

(6) NASA's budget will start going up at a sustainable rate of five to seven percent (that's $750 million to a billion for starters.)

(7) Aeronautics will be spun off to it's own agency. Earth observation goes to NOAA. There'll be other efforts to reorg NASA and make it run better.

(8) The effort to develop some kind of alternate way to get people into LEO will be revamped (again). My suspician is that part of it will include expanding the alternate access program to carrying people as well as cargo. OSP will probably still get built, but a version of it will be envisioned as part of the Back to the Moon effort, thus spreading the cost around.

My guess is that unlike the last Bush, the current Bush is being very careful to bring in Congress and NASA in the planning process for the proposal. Therefore, unlike last time, it will pass largely intact.

Not that there won't be complaints. The libertarians I take to task below will surely find some reason to hate it; their mantra will be predictable. The left will not need a reason to hate it; George Bush will have proposed it. It will hurt children and other living things, they will say. Yet, while the product, having been developed by falliable human beings, will not be perfect, it will be good enough to advance the expansion of human beings into space and will therefore be worthy of support.

In a few weeks, we'll find out how right (or wrong) I am. If the latter then--well--never mind.

Both "Laughing Wolf" and Rand Simberg offer a downbeat, pessimistic assessment of our prospects for space, though Rand is ever hopeful about the advent of the private sector (as I am even though we've been hearing about it for twenty five or so years.) They both are wrong in their total thrust, looking at things as they do through the "government evil, private sector perfect" prism. The reality is a little more complicated.

Rand stumbles about the Bush policy (more above) thus:

The conventional wisdom is that this will be seen as the key space event of the year, one that set off a major investigation into the catastrophe, resulting in recommendations that would ultimately lead to a reform and revitalization of the space agency, with new goals. The cynic in me (that part of me that has, unfortunately, been much more prescient than my more idealistic side) is unsurprisingly skeptical about the prospects for such an outcome. Bureaucracies have remarkable inertia and staying power, particularly when their status-quo activities benefit powerful political interests, and sending humans to other planets, lofty a goal that as seem to many, is not now, and never has been such an activity.

The problem is that isn't true. Public opinion, the White House, Congress, and even that intractable bureaucracy we know as NASA have come together in alignment that a new direction is necessary and that involves stopping going in circles and going beyond LEO.

Such skepticism is borne out, so far, by the fact that many in the space community were disappointed a couple of weeks ago in hoping for an early Christmas present from President Bush--that the administration would announce some bold new goal for NASA on the centennial of flight. Such a goal may still be announced, perhaps at the upcoming State of the Union address next month (and close to the first anniversary of the loss of Columbia), but simply announcing a new destination, as many hope, will not solve the fundamental problem.

First, I'm not sure what not announcing at Kitty Hawk has to do with anything. All that meant is that the policy was not ready for roll out. Also, Rand forgets that it's not just the destination, but what one does when one gets there. My sense is that there will be new things done on the Moon.

"Laughing Wolf" is also prepared to condemn the Bush space policy even before it is rolled out.

The real danger here is that the Bush Administration tends to do things all on its own. It does not leak trial balloons or engage in any of the typical things an administration does to test or tilt the waters. This can be, and for the most part is, a very good thing. The problem lies in the fact that there is no way to tell if anyone in the space policy circle can or will consider that the governmental model is obsolete.

I'm not sure what is meant by "government model." I seem to get the sense that it means any government involvement at all.

Or then again:

Is there a place for government in space? Yes, there is. The government needs to set realistic policies and regulations for commercial, private, or other space ventures. The government can assist with developing truly advanced technologies, or allowing companies access to facilities so as to aid private development of same. The government can help limit liability for all space ventures, just as it does for aviation. There are a host of things government can do, but has to date not done.

All well and good, but to develop technology, one has to test it. That involves flying hardware to places like-say-the Moon. "Laughing Wolf" seems to think that is a replay of Apollo.

What is needed now is not some grand re-do of the Apollo program, but a real space race. Not between governments or political ideologies, but between companies or private groups. This race, this competition, will result in the real next generation of launch vehicles. It will encourage innovation, risk taking, and all those other things that are an anathema to governmental agencies, but are crucial to development. It will give us not one system, but many proven systems so that there is redundancy and cost-effectiveness.

Of course that is a strawman. No one is suggesting a "replay of Apollo" in which we get flags, foot prints, and then nothing. However there is going to be a race between governments and political idealogies. The Chinese space challenge makes that inevitable. Supporting space commerce is a fine objective, but national security is also a worthy purpose for a government space agency, as well science (overemphasized these days as it is.)

Critics like "Laughing Wolf" and Rand Simberg have another problem. While NASA has certainly made more than its share of mistakes and still suffers from institutional problems, the continuous whining about that while offering zero or at best impractable solutions (aside from let's just abolish NASA or make it into a bench testing techie hobby shop and then sit back and let the private sector do everything) is a nonproductive exercise and just a little bit tiresome. So how about it, guys? We know there are problems. We've been hearing about them for decades. What we haven't heard are good solutions.

And if we are disposed to actually develop solutions, let's keep in mind certain facts.

(1) NASA is not going away. You can klick your heels and wish as hard as you want, but it's not going to happen, even if it were desirable.

(2) There will always be a place for government financed, government operated space programs. And that doesn't just consist of bench testing neato technology and doling out prizes (though both of those can be components). National security needs and the consensus that government has a role in developing technology, encouraging economic growth, and doing science suggests a strong, vigorous space program.

(3) If we don't do it, someone else will. And yes, I'm talking about China. And You won't like that future.

So, how about it? Let's have less whining and more solutions.

Let me help out. My view, as I've stated before, is that some kind of synergy between the public and the private has to be established, as it was for aviation and for the opening of the Americas. The way to do that is that NASA (and other government entities) has to become a customer for things like launch services, while devoting itself more to the cutting edge. That's why I disagree with my libertarian friends and support a return to the Moon as a focus for such efforts. A return to the Moon can also serve as a core market for all of those entrepenurial startups because, of course, to get to the Moon, first one must get to Low Earth Orbit. Government lunar operations can also help support commercial efforts.

So, how am I wrong?

For those of you interested in Medieval music, check out Istanpitta.

The Houston Chronicle uses the apparent loss of the Beagle 2 to inveigh against the robots uber alles crowd.

According to this story, President Bush and Prime Minister Blair are preparing to enter Libya in triumph early next year.

Christopher G. Adamo suggests that one of NASA's problems is political correctness. I think he's on to something.

A far left group, that I am told is affiliated with the Howard Dean Campaign, has put out an anti Return to the Moon ad. It puts out the unimaginably evil thesis that if we go back to the Moon, millions of children will starve and wallow in misery. This is the callumny that stopped us going to the Moon thirty odd years ago and is now being revived to stop us from correcting that mistake.

As my friend Dennis Wingo says, "So it begins."

Addendum: T. L. James of the Marsblog gives the text of the evil ad a damn, fine fisking.

Taylor Dinerman examines what new industry might be spawned by the X Prize Competition. In the process he compares Burt Rutan to the Wright Brothers.

George Will suggests that the only thing worse for the Democrats than nominating Howard Dean will be not nominating Howard Dean.

Time for 2003, the year in space:

Most significant story: The Columbia disaster, not only for the lost of an orbiter and a brave crew, but for what it has done to crystallize the need for a change in space policy. The theory seems to be that if people are going to die in space, they should do so doing something besides going around in circles in low Earth orbit.

Runner Up: The flight of the Shenzhou 5. The entry of the Chinese into the exclusive space faring club has sparked the realization among most people that a new space race has begun and it’s not just between China and the United States. India and Japan are both seriously talking about their own person in space program.

Most hopeful development: The formation of a new space policy by the Bush White House that seems to include a return to the Moon. This, in my mind, will correct a thirty plus year mistake that involved the United States stopping going to the Moon. Going back to the Moon will not so much be a “reply of Apollo” as it will be picking up where Apollo 17 left off.

Runner up: The various test flights of Burt Rutan’s SpaceShipOne in the runup to the X Prize some time next year. This will begin the era of sub orbital barnstorming and, in the fullness of time, the entry of the private sector into low Earth orbit operations.

Most predictable disappointment. The apparent loss of the Beagle 2 Mars lander. In my opinion we need to put some means of telemetry on these vehicles the better to monitor them on the way down.

Runner up. The spiralling out of control of the Orbital Space Plane’s costs even before the final design has been formalized. Proof also that some of NASA’s old bad habits have not yet been cured. It will have to be cured if NASA is to be charged with a beyond LEO effort.

Howard Dean proves once again why he should never be President or indeed given any office of public trust.

Going out for those after Christmas sales, with some Christman money or a gift certificate/card from your Aunt Thelma? How about the following?:

Looks like Arnold will be back (in the movies that is.) First up, a documentary about how he became Governor of California by his own hand.

Howard Dean enlists Jesus Christ as his running mate, much I suspect to the chagrin of Clark, Edwards, and Graham.

I remember how they laughed at George Bush for choosing the man from Nazareth as his favorite philosopher.

Charles Rousseaux suggests that the choice before us is one of destinations: the Moon, Mars, and/or earth approaching asteroids. Wherever we go, though:

Mankind belongs in space, and Americans, long the optimists of the frontier, must lead the way. It is long past time for this free people to permanently break the bonds of low-Earth orbit. On that point, even those without stars in their eyes agree.

Indeed.

Merry Christmas to one and all and..........

Good luck to the Beagle 2 team!

Bill Safire is worried that Dean won't get the nomination. His theory is that then Dean goes independent and Bush wins far too easily. David Brooks, however, sees little chance of that happening.

Jeff Greason predicts a revolution in private rocket travel along with a plea for some common sense, commercial friendly government policies.

School vouchers appear to be working in Florida, much I suspect to the consternation of the teachers' unions.

The greenies are locked in a civil war over windmills, a form of power generation we were once assured was environmentally benign. Except that it seems to kill birds.

A conservative student group battles political correctness by listing the top ten campus follies.

US News has a good piece about Colin Pillinger, the scientist responsible for the Beagle 2 space probe due to touch down on Mars this Christmas Morning.

Rand Simberg offers his latest musings on space and thereby falls into the idealogical trap he usually stumbles into. His position can be summerized thus: Goverment bad. Commercial good.

The problem with his position is that it is not supported by historical experience. The first great age of exploration (started in my opinion by the government funded Prince Henry the Navigator and not by the government funded Columbus) was sustained by a synergy of public and private efforts. So too was the development of aviation. In both cases government resources and private flexibility combined to drive progress.

The problem with the way we have done space is that we have not found that synergy. At the beginning of the space age, it was considered gospel that only governments had the resources to develop space technology and operate in space. Now certain libertarian idealogues tell us that only the commercial sector has the flexibility to do the same.

Both points of view are right--and wrong at the same time.

Certainly we are not going to abolish NASA and end all publically funded space efforts. Talking about that is about the same as proposing an expedition, not to the Moon or Mars, but to Utopia (which of course translates as "nowhere.") National security requirements, the Chinese space challenge, and the need to marshel resources to open up the high frontier of space makes any such proposals a fantasy at best, dangerous at worse.

What we can do is to make our publically funded space efforts more commercial friendly, to use them as core markets (just like the air mail) to help jump start a commercial space sector. For instance, let's throw open the maintenance and resupply of the International Space Station to commercial big, instead of building another NASA run space ship to do the same. The assembly of lunar and interplanetary expeditions in low Earth orbit can be another core market. That's not just a grand vision, but a realistic one.

Update: Rand has offered a complaint that I have mistated his position. In his comments section he has offered a "clarification" that seems to my mind to somewhat contradict his original position. (He now favors some publically funded space projects, though he is vague about what they would be and under what conditions, etc.) I've responded to his response, pointing out--among other things--that he would have less to complain about if he could manage to have a clear and consistant position.

The Washington Time's Inside the Beltway section has apparently discovered a hitherto unimagined aspect of the President's Return to the Moon strategery (with tongue firmly planted in cheek):

As is tradition at the annual holiday White House Basement Party, a Christmas poem — penned this year by Greg Clugston of Salem Radio News — was read to all assembled, including White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan.
The talented Mr. Clugston titled his verse: "'Twas the Night Before Christmas — 2003 White House Press Basement Version":
'Twas the night before Christmas and at the White House,
President Bush was asleep — quiet as a mouse.
With Barney and Spot at the foot of the bed,
Visions of prescription drug benefits danced in his head.
Tomorrow, in the morning, to Camp David he'd go
For Christmas with Laura and his parents in tow.
Having gotten a lid, the reporters laid low,
Expecting their holiday shift to go slow.
When out on the South Lawn there arose such a clatter,
Laura jumped up to see what was the matter.
And what to her bewildered eyes did she see?
Two shadowy figures attempting to flee.
The couple wore ball caps in the dark of the night,
Boarding a Gulfstream Five for a top-secret flight.
The plane flew at top speed with shades pulled down tight.
Even exterior lights were off — to keep out of sight.
When a "non-U.K." pilot spotted the presidential plane,
The control tower suggested he was going insane.
The president arrived at a remote military base.
So remote, in fact, it looked like outer space.
Travel poolers were incredulous, as they began to swoon,
Realizing that Bush had just flown to the moon!
Dressed all in white, Bush emerged with a jump.
Wearing a spaceflight suit, he was ready to stump.
"Now Kerry! Now Gephardt! Dean, Edwards, and Clark!
And the rest of you candidates who are a shot in the dark!
"My bold new campaign will keep you off-kilter.
I'll do it bypassing the national media 'filter.' "
It was a strategy all of the Democrats feared —
TV ads replaying Saddam's shaggy beard.
Bush hoisted a flag, planting it inside a crater.
He saluted and waved and said, "See ya later."
Hours later, Dubya arrived back home on the lawn.
Stepping off the Gulfstream he stifled a yawn.
He approached the stakeout with a twinkle in his eye,
Knowing the secret travel would boost poll numbers high.
And I heard him exclaim, while Cheney hunted and fished,
"Merry Christmas to all! 'Mission Accomplished.' "

The Zero Gravity Club (which likely has a couple or more members already) now has a $40 million entry fee.

Update: Chris Hall takes me to task for the use of the term "Zero Gravity", which is not quite accurately what goes on in space.

Timothy Ferris continues the drum beat for a return to the Moon.

Howard Dean ought to consider this sobering fact: His views on national security issues are scary to liberal Democrats. Not because they are a danger to Civilization, but because they are a danger to the Democrat Party.

Mr. Gregory Weinkauf publishes a review of Return of the King that is, shall we say, unique. He makes two outrageous conclusions:

One other bitch: Elijah Wood. Even after conducting an unofficial poll among random women -- for whom this cinematic Frodo approximates their fantasy of masculine innocence, or something -- his casting remains an irritation. Wood is way too young (Frodo is supposed to be 50 in these adventures), and Ring-geeks may be silenced by stating that, aesthetically, he simply lacks the experience to fulfill this role. Wood looks like a spoiled princess in a poofy wig, not a forlorn orphan with a monumental burden. He's a sticky little turd in the middle of an angel food cake. The only salvation is that very soon we'll have the technology to delete Wood on our home computers and edit in someone better. Gene Hackman would have been better. ("Henh-henh…my dear Sam…henh!")

Leaving aside the fact that LOTR hobbits age slower than humans, so that fifty is the equivilent of twenty something, I think most people will conclude that this evaluation is wide of the mark.

Besides, Gene Hackman?! Please...

Then Mr. Weinkauf inserts some political commentary:

Denethor (John Noble), who is a total nutcase fraud very similar to our current American president (Bush, please follow his example to its conclusion).

Well, gracious. Now as Eminem is finding out to his cost, those who wish for the death of the President get the unwelcome attention of the Secret Service. I wonder if that includes the wish that he go crazy and throw himself on a flaming pyre? I hope so, because getting Bush hatred shoved down ones throat during a moview review puts one off one's food a little too much.

Qaddafy, mindfull no doubt of the fate of Saddam Hussein, has apparently capitulated on the subjects of WMDs and terrorism.

Alan Boyle has some thoughts about "Survivor on Mars" and the irrespressable Bob Zubrin.

What dark conspiracy is devouring the Democrat Party into a morass of paranoia and madness?

"Dean, McDermott and Albright sound like the Democratic foreign-policy dream team," Mr. Reed said. "I also heard a rumor that aliens were coming down to Earth to occupy the bodies of three prominent Democrats, and it looks like it came true."

Dr. Paul Spudis gives yet another case for a return to the Moon.

The failure of the Wright brothers flight reenactment was well covered in the media. Ignored, of course, was Burt Rutan's breaking the sound barrier with his privately built rocketship was little noticed. I bet Orville and Wilbur would have appreciated the irony.

We saw Return of the King today (of course) and the English language is inadequet ti describe how impressed I was. I saw sights that I had only my imagination to visualize for the past thirty five years since I read the books. The Battle of Minas Tireth sequence is the greatest of its kind ever put on the screen.

It was little noticed at the time, but a hundred years ago this day, the world changed forever because of two men on a wind swept beach.

Happy birthday, Arthur C. Clarke.
Happy birthday, Beethoven.

Congressman Jim McDermott should resign from Congress in shame.

In an interview Monday with a Seattle radio station, McDermott said the U.S. military could have found the former Iraqi dictator "a long time ago if they wanted."

Asked if he thought the weekend capture was timed to help Bush, McDermott chuckled and said, "Yeah. Oh, yeah."

McDermott went on to say, "There's too much by happenstance for it to be just a coincidental thing."

When interviewer Dave Ross asked again if he meant to imply the Bush administration timed the capture for political reasons, McDermott said: "I don't know that it was definitely planned on this weekend, but I know they've been in contact with people all along who knew basically where he was. It was just a matter of time till they'd find him.

"It's funny," McDermott added, "when they're having all this trouble, suddenly they have to roll out something."

On the other hand, maybe he should just keep it up and confirm the Democrat Party as the Party of Raving Lunacy.

With a war on Terror, a war in Iraq, economic uncertainty, and an agrimonious election drawing nigh, is this any time to even think of going back to the Moon? Douglas MacKinnon says, "Yes!"

Orson Scott Card, the SF author of the Ender and Alvin Maker series, has some harsh words for his fellow democrats.

A return to the Moon won't be a big windfall for the big aerospace conglomerates like Boeing and Lockmart. On the other hand:

"The work you do for NASA doesn't look that attractive on a straight profit investment standpoint. But it allows people like ourselves to develop technologies we would not have developed otherwise, and really pushes the technology envelope," said Richard Aubrecht, vice president of strategy and technology at Moog Inc., a subcontractor on the space shuttle and other NASA spacecraft dating back to Mercury.

"If you can use the technology you're developing there, then it's a very good deal for everyone – for your company, for NASA and for the country."

Via Marsblog.

General Wesley Clark, who once seemed to advocate the development of warp drives, disdains a return to the Moon.

During his campaign speech, Clark made indirect reference to reports that Bush plans to return U.S. astronauts to the moon.

''I see a country that can produce great scientists and engineers,'' Clark told the crowd. ''We've already been to the moon. We did it.''

Afterward, he told reporters, ''We need to get America pointed into the future on the things that represent the future in this country.''

Now, who is this "we", I wonder? I have not been to the Moon. Neither has General Clark. Indeed, a hundred and thirty five million Americans have never actually seen a moon walk live.

Peaceniks reallly need to get over Hiroshima and stop protesting the display of the Enola Gay at the new Air and Space Museum Annex. An invasion of Japan would have very likely taken over a million Japanese and allied lives. The atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki both spared the world that horror and provided a look at the potential greater horror that nuclear combat was capable of visiting upon the world. Enola Gay may well have spared the world death by nuclear war in that way

Will the sub orbital space craft being developed under the X Prize competition eventually lead to vehicles that can go all the way to orbit? Clark Lindsey suggests probibly.

Sounds like the director who will do the movie version of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire" wants to channel Hitchcock. Should be interesting.

Unlike the rest of the Democrats, Lieberman seemed positively the statesman on Saddam's capture. That's a good political gambit for him if he thinks that a "silent majority" of Democrats will rise up and beat back Howard Dean and give some sensible person (say, Lieberman) the nomination. I'm afraid, though, that Democrat primary voters are inmune to external stimuli. They hate the war. They hate Bush. That is all that matters.

Late breaking news. Various sources are reporting that Saddam Hussein is in Coalition hands. US Defense Department refuses to confirm at this time. More to follow.

Addendum: Looks like it's confirmed. This is big. This is as if we had captured Hitler after World War II.

Addendun: More confirmation. Looks like the celebration has begun in the streets of Baghdad.

Addendum: If John Kerry's reaction is any guide, it looks like the Democrats are at a loss as to how to deal with this. He took the occassion of Saddam's capture to launch partisan attacks against both President Bush and Howard Dean. He looked shrill and a little bit demented.

Mohammed Atta, the mastermind of 9/11, was trained by Abu Nidel in Baghdad, just weeks before the attack that destroyed the twin towers, according to this story. This makes Operation Iraqi Freedom even more of a justum bellum than ever.

Talks over a European constitution have collapsed. And not too soon, in my opinion. The whole notion of a European Union is nothing more than a Franco-German scheme to take over Europe and then use it as an instrument to stick it to the Americans.

About fifty members of the Medici family, which caused so much Itallian history, starting in the 15th Century, are to be dug up for forensic examination. One question to be answered is how many of them died by poison.

Sharon Begley says it is time to go to Mars, the Moon not being exciting enough.

We seem to have turned the corner in Iraq according to Victor Davis Hanson.

James Carville, fresh from losing his cabbage each and every episode of HBO's K-Street, does the same live, before an audience of Democrats.

Two great holiday gifts:

The Supreme Court's horrible McCain-Feingold decision has brought together the left and the right in common cause. Let this be a lesson. Assaults on free speech hurt everybody, not just folks one happens to disagree with.

George Will asks some hard questions for the Democrat Presidential candidates.

The Moon is about to become a popular destination for many nations.

Peggy Noonan gives eulogy to Robert Bartley, friend and champion of freedom.

Old Europe is learning that appeasing Saddam has a cost.

While democracy and free speech are under assault in the United States by proponents of "campaign finance reform", it seems to be flourishing in Iraq.

"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances. "

Not, apparently, according to the Supreme Court. This decision is Earth shaking in its implications. It says, in effect, that the government can restrict free, political speech. Justice Scalia, in his dissent, is quite right by saying that it is a dark day for freedom. It is the worse decision that the Supreme Court has ever made and, somehow, in some way, it must not stand.

Abolish NASA or depend on ponderous, international bureaucracies to explore space? The answer, in my mind, is neither. I oppose international bureaucracies in all forms for any purpose. As for abolishing NASA, the political difficulties aside, there seems to me to be a role for a government role in the opening of the high frontier, pursuing the cuttung edge research and exploration that the entrepeneurs are not willing to do and/or able to do. In other words, the universe is vast enough for both NASA and Jeff Bezos to play in.

Looks like most of the American people favor a return to the Moon, so long as it doesn't cost too much.

The first step in China's lunar effort, the Chang'e I Lunar Orbiter will launch within three years.

According to Dick Morris, Gore backing Dean makes a lot of sense. By doing so, Gore pokes a finger in the eye of the Clintons and, since Dean won't win, Gore is set up for a battle for the nomination with Hillary in 08.

Looks like the radiation hazards on and around Mars are manageable for humans.

The Christian Science Monitor repeats the foolishness about the return to the Moon commited by the Washington Post (see below). Both it and the Post seem to repeat the same talking points.

Al Gore jumps on the Howard Dean band wagon. I wonder if Gore will give Dean some tips on debate techniques.

Peter Jennings is not liberally biased. He is just protecting the peasents in America through a sense of noblesse oblige.

Michael Barone says that those who criticize President Bush for spending too much money miss the point. Bush never campaigned as a small government conservative in the classic sense that he wanted to shrink government. What he proposes to do with government (and is doing) is far more revolutionary.

Taylor Dinerman suggests that the Moon could become the Gibraltar of space. What's more, the Chinese recognize that fact.

Robert Roy Britt suggests ten reasons to return to the Moon. Clearly not listed in order of importance.

Despite the Washington Post (see below) discussion and excitement is building for a return to the Moon.

The folks at the Washington Post are mad as hell that the President is even thinking of sending people back to the Moon. Of course they seem to be mad as hell at the President period.

THE BUSH ADMINISTRATION is said to be considering a commitment to put a person on the moon. This comes in the context of a White House search for "Big Ideas" -- think "vision" and "national purpose" -- to carry into the 2004 campaign, according to Post reporters Mike Allen and Kathy Sawyer. We suppose every president goes through a similar process as he faces reelection and the question: What would I do with a second term? But putting a man on the moon, as it used to be called, was a Big Idea 40 years ago, and even then no one could really articulate a purpose.

That's false, of course. Lots of people articulated a purpose for Apollo and are articulating a purpose for a return to the Moon. The Post just doesn;t think those purposes are valid.

Why would President Bush, to whom this proposal has not yet been presented, embark on a dubious, multibillion-dollar rerun at a time of war and budget deficits?

That's very cute, but returning to the Moon is not a "rerun", but rather picking up where Apollo 17 left off.

We can think of plenty of Big Ideas more useful than providing a new employment program for NASA, Boeing and Lockheed Martin. Make sure every child who qualifies gets to attend Head Start; right now, two out of five are shut out, the Children's Defense Fund reports. Make sure every low-income family that qualifies receives housing assistance; right now, 5 million are in need, according to the National Low Income Housing Coalition. Not Big enough? How about health insurance and preschool for every American 4-year-old?

Aren't we a little past the hoary, old "starving children" argument against space exploration? Thirty years ago we abandoned the Moon and robbed a generation of a brillient age of space exploration so that we could fund the welfare state. Those welfare programs, by the way, failed and in many ways made matters worse.

The Post goes on to contradict itself in a grand fashion.

In other words, government could do plenty of useful things if money were unlimited. But it's not -- as Republicans used to tell us. In that context, we propose two Big Ideas that should come first, even if, as campaign slogans, they may need work.

Finish what you started. To his great credit, Mr. Bush rededicated his presidency after 9/11, and he has accomplished a great deal toward making America safer. But as he has said many times, the battle against terrorism will be long and arduous. Osama bin Laden and Saddam Hussein remain at large. The anthrax attacks remain unsolved. The administration's plan to defend against smallpox is in a shambles, research into bioterror is in its infancy, cargo arrives in U.S. ports with less than ideal scrutiny. In eastern Afghanistan the Taliban is regrouping, and in Iraq U.S. success is far from assured. The Army is straining under unexpectedly long and dangerous deployments. If the administration suddenly has found extra billions for NASA, it could dedicate them to the crucial mission in Iraq.

In other words, the Post wants guns as well as butter, slathered over with a little Vietnam War style panic talk. How Johnsonian.

The Post goes on to grouse the liberal grousing about a new found worry. The deficit.

Clean up your mess. Mr. Bush not only has failed to confront the serious budgetary problems that he inherited; he's made a frightening situation far worse. "The Social Security and Medicare shortfalls compel change," Mr. Bush said in his 2004 budget. "They must not be left hanging over the heads of our children and grandchildren. The longer the delay in enacting reforms, the greater the danger, and the more drastic the remedies will have to be." All true; yet Mr. Bush's actions have only dug the hole deeper. He's saddled the country with unaffordable tax cuts, pressed to make those cuts permanent, allowed federal spending to soar and added a huge new entitlement program, prescription drug coverage for Medicare, that does little to constrain rising Medicare costs as part of the bargain.

So one suspects that the Post will support privitizing Social Security and Medicare when it's proposed next year. And Osama bin Laden will convert to Judeism.

And by the way, "unaffordable tax cuts?" At least the Post didn't yell about "tax cuts for the rich?"

And so the budget has swung from a $237 billion surplus in fiscal year 2000 to a $374 billion deficit in 2003 -- the most precipitous fall in 50 years. Worse, no end to the record deficits is in sight: The 2004 shortfall is apt to be above $500 billion, and the 10-year deficit $5.5 trillion or more. The selfishness and irresponsibility are breathtaking. So here's one more Big Idea: level with the American people about what it will take to get the fiscal house back in order, and begin the process of doing so.

Translated, of course, is "raise taxes, cut the military, and certainly don't do any new space initiatives." Certainly not restrain entitlements. That would be "on the backs of the poor and the elderly."

John Kerry leaps the length of his chain and using the F word to attack the President.

Is the Chinese "great leap outward" helping to spur a new American space initiative? Here and here are indications that it is so. (Via NASA Watch)

Looks like a return to the Moon is only one of the big initiatives being pursued by the Bush White House. Another seems to be a "war on desease" that should be popular with aging baby boomers.

A return to the Moon should be easier, cheaper, and presumably quicker than it the 1960s.

If a decision is made to return to the moon, NASA's advantage is that some technological issues were solved decades ago, McCurdy noted, as were the difficulties in organizing a work force to make it happen. But the challenge of how to do it without spending what amounts to $150 billion in today's dollars is equally important.

"We know how to do low-cost missions. The problem is, they crash a lot," McCurdy said. "We also know how to do high-reliability missions. The trick is now to do both, simultaneously."

There are two series coming the TV set in Ancient Rome, ABC's Empire (renamed from Tyrannus) and HBO's Rome.

The New York Post seems to confirm the back to the Moon story.

A return to the Moon would constitute a monumental turning point in human history. It would open up such a myriad of opportunities in commerce, in technology development, and scientific research that people should be amazed that this proposal had not be seriously pursued before. Indeed, the fact that we stopped voyaging to the Moon in the 1970s is a blot on our civilization. If President Bush makes this proposal and if we rise to that challenge, that blot will finally be wiped out.

Unlike Rice and the University of Texas, Texas A&M will not practice racial discrimination in admissions.

NASA's O'Keefe hints at big changes ahead for the US space program.

Jeffrey Bell misreads history in order to make a point about the need to develop true space faring technology.

First, Bell on the Chinese:

But some years ago, I read some of the actual literature on that short period of Chinese oceanic voyaging. The real story is that those tribute fleets were very much like our current space program: vastly expensive, but producing no useful results other than propaganda. At each port stop, the local sultans or maharajas proclaimed themselves vassals of the Celestial Emperor, expensive gifts were exchanged, and then the fleet sailed on.

The Chinese didn't get any colonies, forts, naval bases, or trading posts. They seem not to have even collected taxes or tribute on a long-term basis from the places they visited. There was no increase in trade or industry that can be traced to Cheng Ho's voyages.

Bell makes a circular argument here. Zheng He's voyages "failed" because they didn't lead to long term overseas trade and colonization. But, it could be argued that Zheng He's voyages did not lead to these things because not only did the Mandrians stopped those voyages, but passed laws forbidding even privately funded overseas voyages on pain of death.

Next, Bell trots out the Vikings in Vinland:

What the Norse colonizers of Canada lacked was the technological base to maintain themselves in the New World. They had a marginal technology for crossing the ocean, a marginal technology for fighting the Indians, marginal cold-weather clothes, and marginal farming/fishing/mining techniques.

They didn't find an export product that could have been sold in Europe. They could just barely support one tiny village in Newfoundland with the help of the larger colonies in Greenland and Iceland. (And this was in a period called the Medieval Climatic Optimum that was considerably warmer than today.)

When it became clear that life in Newfoundland would be nasty, brutish, and short even by Viking standards, they gave up. Later, the Little Ice Age came along and even the Norse colonies in Greenland were snuffed out by global cooling that their feeble technical toolkit couldn't cope with.

These points are a little more valid, though one might point out that hostile Indians were probibly the decisive factor in the failure of the Norse North American settlements. There are no natives--hostile or not--to deal wwith anywhere in the Solar System and therefore the Viking analogy is not quite as valid.

Bell does, however, comes to a good idea for a model for our space efforts in the near term. It is not so much Columbus as it is Prince Henry the Navigator.

What we need are the 21st-century equivalents of the galleons, plate armor, gunpowder, horses, and plows that made the European colonization of America practical in the 1500s and 1600s. Even more, we need some outer space analog to profit centers like Newfoundland's codfish, Virginia's tobacco, and Mexico's gold.

When we have these things, the Age of Space will really start. If we emulated the Vikings and the Confucian scholars by closing down our current useless manned space program, we might have the money to fund the equivalent of Prince Henry's Navigation Institute and develop this technology now instead of waiting 500 years.

Of course the interesting part was that Prince Henry funded extensive overseas voyages, most of which remain secret to this day, partly to explore the coasts of Africa, but also to research and develop deep ocean sailing technology that Columbus and his successors eventually used to open up the Americas.

Dennis E. Powell discusses the prospect of a return to the Moon.

If "reality TV " has been done to death, will "alternate reality" TV be not far behind?

President Bush's first post Thanksgiving poll has his job approval at 61 percent. His enemies will view this as proof that his Baghdad trip was undertaken for purely evil political purposes.

Looks like the Russians have arrived at the obvious conclusion about what a turkey Kyoto is.

There's a proposal to replace the head of FDR--whom many mistakenly think was the greatest US President of the 20th Century--with that of Reagan, who really was the greatest US President of the 20th Century.

Jeff Foust muses on the subject of space visions. Meanwhile, David Boswell discusses one such vision, Mars Direct.

Dick Morris chronicles Hillary Clinton's badwill tour of Afghanistan and Iraq. Meanwhile, Bush's enemies continue to rant about the President's far more inspiring trip to Baghdad.

Frank Sietzen suggests that the Orlando Sentinal scenario is false and that President Bush is sending us back to the Moon.

Whomever is working on a new space policy at the White House would do well to listen to Dana Rohrabacher.

Rand Simberg misses the point about the Chinese space challenge again and misreports your humble servant's position on it:

And Mark thinks that this will, or should, have the American public quaking in our collective boots?

Well, no, I don't. I do, however, think that this challenge requires some kind of response. I will however start to quake if Rand's advice of complacency and denial becomes standard operating proceedure. The Orlando Sentinal suggests that the Bush administration is considering doing nothing. (Free registration required for linked story.) I trust this will not be the case.

Any policy that does not address the fundamental fact that the American space program has been literally going in circles for the past thirty years will be, in my opinion, a failure of imagination and of courage. The United States needs to encourage a commercial launch industry to replace the aging shuttle fleet and to redirect NASA's energy to the human exploration of the Moon and beyond. Anything less will constitute a failure to rise to an opportunity of epic proportions.

George Will weighs in on the subject of gay marriage without revealing which side, if any, he is on.

Official vagueness about China's lunar ambitions ended yesterday. They plan to have taikionauts on the Moon by 2020.

Now that the holiday season has begun, I should like to humbly make a couple of suggestions for gifts.

Nocturne is the espionage thriller I wrote with the wife Chantal back in the late nineties. Nocturne had its origins in a trip we took to Italy in 1987. We just happened to find ourselves in Venice a month before the economic summit of industrialized nations that took place there that year. 1987 was also the year that Gorbachev’s glasnost and perestroika policies, which would eventually help lead to the fall of the Soviet Union, were just beginning to take off.

So, Chantal and I thought, what if a group of communist hard liners, seeing the possibility that the Soviets might lose the Cold War, decided to take desperate measures to try to prevent that loss? The center of that plot would be the assassination of the seven world leaders in Venice, including President Reagan and Prime Minister Maggie Thatcher. We invented an American couple, much like ourselves, visiting Venice at the time of the summit, and a college friend of theirs who is in charge of the summit’s security. Without giving away too many plot details, I’ll mention that one critic thought the story could be summed up as “Nick and Nora Charles meet the Manchurian Candidate.”

Nocturne is available in trade paperback and hardcover.

Children of Apollo, my alternate history novel that came out last year, is so far my most personal effort. Children of Apollo takes place during the Apollo program, but one that is slightly altered from the history we know. Instead of truncating the Apollo moon expeditions, President Nixon decides to expand them, primarily as a way to pressure the Soviets to make arms control and other concessions. I illustrate Nixon’s “Tricky Dick” side by having him at the same time propose a joint space exploration program with the Soviets as a way of furthering détente.

The main character is a female geologist who eventually becomes an astronaut and flies as lunar module pilot on Apollo 23’s expedition to the lunar south pole. Other characters include an African American astronaut who goes on to be involved in a slightly different space shuttle program, a liberal Democrat politician who opposes the space program, and a CIA analyst haunted by the idea that he might have changed history.

Children of Apollo is also available in trade paperback and hardcover.

Here is the President's address to the troops in Baghdad.

President Bush's visit to the troops in Baghdad was a gesture of heart felt solidarity with the boys and girls fighting terrorism and tyranny, as well as an act of personal courage. Naturally his enemies will view it as a nefariously clever political gambit.

Rich Lowry shows us how Howard Dean is positively scary in his rage:

At an afternoon union rally in New York City, Howard Dean is trying to be uplifting. He is talking about progress made in the civil-rights revolution, despite awful setbacks. Dean recalls how we "lost" Martin Luther King Jr., "lost" Robert Kennedy, and "lost" schoolgirls in the Birmingham, Ala., church bombing in the 1960s. But before he can finish his riff with a burst of inspiring rhetoric, a voice rings out from the back of the hall: "Let's 'lose' George Bush!"

And so it goes on Planet Dean. Even when the former Vermont governor tries to inspire, he provokes from his audience a call — by implication — for the assassination of the president of the United States. The rule for a Dean crowd is: Don't be uplifting if you can be angry instead.

Some of this may not be quite Star Trek technology, but it seems awefully close.

John Kerry's death dive continues as a poll shows Dean beating him in Kerry's own state of Massachusetts

The President of the Czech Republic says that Old Europe is living in a dream world.

Taking a giant step backward, both Rice University and the University of Texas decide to resume discrimination on the basis of race in admissions.

R. H. Sager offers a conservative case for gay marriage. So does David Brooks, though Brooks is mistaken about the utility of sowing wild oats before settling down.

You got to love the Democrats. First they turn on the AARP, once one of their most loyal special interest groups, then they diss Joe Lieberman, a respected Democrat US Senator.

Newsweek discusses Jim Benson's SpaceDev company.

The Democrat position appears to be that it is illegitement to say that, "The President is right and the Democrats are wrong on the war of terror issue."

Two more ancient history film epics are in the works, another about Alexander and one about Cyrus of Persia.

An interesting piece on India's space ambitions. The fascinating part is how eliminating poverty and space exploration seem to be linked.

Christopher Hitchens turns his gimlet eye upon John F. Kennedy and the myth of Camelot and finds both wanting.

Looks like Walter Duranty will keep his Pulitzer, even though he covered up Stalin's crimes against humanity.

The ACLU apparently thinks that school Christmas pagents are human rights violations. Since I was in my own school's Christmas play in the 6th grade (in the role of--if you can believe it--an alien who flew his spacecraft round the world with a couple of Earth children to observe Christmas customs in various countries), I guess I must be as one with Pinochet and John Ashcroft. For all of those I taumatized with this brutal denial of human rights (as well as questionable acting), please forgive me.

Here is more on the Saddam-Usama connection that the anti war left assures us doesnot exist.

President Bush is likely to sign a bill boosting funding for nanotechnology research, and a good thing too. It also looks like that, along with biotechnology, Old Europe is likely to remain backward in this area, mainly because of irrational fears:

Elsewhere, particularly in Europe, talk of the perils of nanotechnology research has led to stricter controls on scientists. Some researchers have suggested it might even become the next issue to go the way of genetically modified crops, which, in Europe, have generated public opposition strong enough to stop the sale of such products.

Rand Simberg informs us that George Walker Bush is no Jack Kennedy. He is in fact better than JFK and that may well be especially in matters of space exploration.

Speaking of someone who was never a man, prepare yourself for months and months of unadulterated, wall to wall awefulness on the cable channels. Michael Jackson and child molestation are just too perfect for the likes of Greta, Geraldo, and company.

Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World is a movie for and about real men. And, I might add, the women who appreciate them.

A series of films about Young Merlin is in the works. The pitch was apparently, "It's Harry Potter in fifth century Wales."

An ancient Roman disaster movie, about the destruction of Pompei, is in development.

NASA is trying to shoe horn the orbital space plane into the humans beyond LEO plans. But the OSP still has problems.

I still say that for the "first 100 miles and the last 100 miles", we should go to the private sector in a prize competition.

NASA is already planning for missions beyond LEO. The infrastructure includes a huge, heavy lifter. Now, I don't think this new HLV should be a prerequisite for starting to go beyond LEO, since we could assemble things in orbit using Delta IVs and Atlas Vs. But, later on, it might be useful.

I guess they don't all hate us for Iraq, at least in Great Britain.

The problem with the gay marriage ruling is similer to that of Roe V. Wade. (And first let me stipulate that I agree with both the right to an abortion and the right of gays to marry as general princibles.) The fact that gay marriage, like abortion, is going to be established by judicial fiat is going to cause a huge backlash, in my opinion. If both of these issues were settled in the court of public opinion, by legislation, with the use of appeals to reason and fairness, then that would be one thing. But because the question, which many find controversial at best, odious at worse, is to be settled by the dictate of a few judges, then many people are going to find the very process tyrannical and will revolt.

Update: Jim Oberg at www.jamesoberg.com offers some other reasons why the subject of gay (or same sex) marriage should be resolved through public discussion and legislation and not judicial fiat:

Precise terminology is the only hope in seeing through this fog, and the issue isn't marriage which requires some specified form of sexual activity ("gay marriage"), but marriage in which the partners have a different-than-usual physical identity ("same-sex marriage"). To use the former term requires some state certification of the sexual orientation and activities of the partners, a level of obstrusiveness that goes far beyond the general acceptance level (like, should 'gay' be an option on a census form? -- I don't THINK so). Now, once the concept of same-sex legal unions with civic equivalence to opposite-sex unions becomes acceptable, the obvious question is, why doesn't EVERYBODY who likes such advantages use them? Two same-sex but not gay male or female roommates where one needs cheap medical coverage? Why not two siblings? Why not a single man and his widower father, to gain the same 'rights' (including medical coverage)? What's to stop such 'abuse' of the provisions, and who's to say it's abuse, and how would you PROVE it was 'abuse' and then what would you do? I'm not advocating any option here, but I'm asking why the logical consequences of these new civil arrangements aren't being more widely discussed?

To be sure. I suspect that the kind of judicial overreaching such as we saw in Massachuttes is going to make a "Defense of Marriage" Constitutional Amendment more likely.

Jeff Foust examines two innovative means of financing space efforts. These are space sector mutual funds and X prizes.

Taylor Dinerman has an interesting piece on what should be the response to the Chinese space challenge. I think he is a little naive about the nature of China's long term grand strategy, which has as its goal to match and then eventually replace the United States as a super power. But at the very least he does not counsel complacency.

Rush Limbaugh is back. Let the enemies of freedom tremble.

Even with the UN fig leaf, this is still cyber imperialism and should be resisted to the utmost.

An observatory on the lunar surface would open up the universe.

Florida Today has come up with a fifty year space exploration plan. I'm pretty sure I'm a bit leary about trying to plan out the next fifty years down to the nth degree of detail. I also think that, properly done, we could get people on Mars a lot sooner than 2054.

The death spiral of the Kerry Campaign proceeds apace, as Dean closes for the kill.

Robert Rodat, who penned Saving Private Ryan and The Patriot, is writing the screenplay for The First Olympics, about an Athenian warrior who hopes to beat his Sparten rival in the Olympics, win the respect of his General, and win the heart of the General's daughter.

The European notion of "usage rights" (as opposed to property rights) on the Moon and other celestrial bodies is, in my opinion, a bureucratic train wreck ready to happen and a non starter if one is interested in the commercial development of the high frontier. Some provision has to be made for the private ownership or land and natural resources in space and a mechanisim must be put in place to enforce the rights of owners. An international agreement is certainly preferable, but if other countries become intransigent, then there is an alternative. The United States could abrogate the Outer Space Treaty, claim the Moon as soverign territory, and then negotiate a new treaty from a position of strength.

I once thought that John F. Kerry's Presidential hopes would be over just as soon as Howard Dean whips him in New Hampshire. But I now wonder if I was giving Kerry too much credit for supposing he would even make it that far.

George Will suggests that if the Dems don't nominate Howard Dean, Dean will run as an independent. Then the fun really begins.

Rand Simberg gives the back of his hand to the revived idea of a shuttle derived heavy lifter. I have to agree with him on this point. We've learned enough about on orbit assembly to not need such a thing, for now.

Karen Sisco, the best new drama on network TV, is going on hiatus until March. The crime drama about a Federal Marshal in Miami has not been doing well in the ratings, due to its being run opposite NBC's Law and Order. I suppose ABC should be congratulated for not cancelling the series entirely, as is the usual practice, but it had better give it a better time slot when it comes back.

But I thought that Saddem and Osama had no relationship and so the invasion of Iraq is just a distraction from the "real" war on terror.

Space resource utilization is a key to opening up the high frontier.

Marcia Smith provides a good overview of the Chinese space program.

Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World is, bar none, the greatest film ever made about the era of wooden ships and iron men. Even if you have not read the Patrick O'Brian series of books about Captain Aubrey and Dr. Maturin (and you should), this movie is over two hours of pure entertainment.

More evidence that Liberal Democrats not only think that women and minority conservatives are unqualified for the federal bench, but that they are literally sub human.

Sen. Ted Kennedy, D-Mass., said Democrats will continue to resist what he describes as "any Neanderthal" the president nominates.

It seems that Liberal Democrat opposition to Bush judicial nominees is, at least in part, based on race.

Your Humble Servant offers a detailed historic background of the recent flight of the Shenzhou 5. My conclusion? The 15th Century Mandarians were foolish to stop the deep water voyages of Zheng He, just as their 20th Century counterparts were foolish to stop Apollo.

I'm not sure what about this the Dean people find upsetting. After all, Dean has expressed such an appreciation of symbols of southern heritage.

Word has it that director Shekhar Kaptur is working on a sequal to his Oscar nominated historical epic Elizabeth, to be entitled The Golden Age. Elizabeth depicted the rise to power of Elizabeth 1 of England and starred Cate Blanchett.

A film based on the life of Galileo is in development.

Keith Cowing muses on the process of creating a new space policy to send people beyond Low Earth Orbit, first back to the Moon, later beyond.

Next thing you know, these intrepid girl scouts will be shooting bears and building log cabins.

The turmoil rocking the John Kerry campaign is proceeding apace. The problem, of course, is the candidate and the message and it can't be solved by staff shake ups.

Another attempt is going to be made to revive that cult classic TV series Dark Shadows, this time for the WB. The original series about a mysterious rich family in Maine that featured vampires, werewolves, ghosts, and other occult matters first aired in the late sixties.

The GOP has been unfairly pegged as the party of plutocrats since the time of FDR. Actually the Democrats have more than their share of well heeled qadzillionaire supporters. A case in point is George Soros, who has pledged millions to the personal destruction of President George W. Bush. Soros' hatred of the President is so intense that he has compared Bush to both the Nazis and the Soviets.

I wonder how the media would have reacted if--say--Bill Gates had openly announced that he would pay millions to take down Bill Clinton? Certainly Gates had every incentive, but I think the media would be somewhat less calm.

SpaceDev is offering your very own space mission on EBay.

Most earth orbiting small satellite missions can cost $25 million or more, not including the launch. To demonstrate the affordability of private space missions, SpaceDev has posted a “Buy it Now” price of $9.5 million. The high bidder will win a spacecraft based on SpaceDev’s Maneuvering and orbit Transfer Vehicle (MTV™).



“I founded SpaceDev to accelerate the development of space, to get the public involved in space and to have fun,” said Jim Benson, SpaceDev founder and CEO. “With our successful launch and operation of CHIPSat earlier this year, and after being competitively selected to provide safe hybrid rocket propulsion for manned space flight, we are offering this unique space mission to the public.”



The high bidder has the right to supply his or her own payload, to name the SpaceDev MTV™ satellite and to name the mission. The winning bidder, which could be an individual, company or government agency, can also be involved in the mission design, satellite assembly and testing (including putting small personal items on the spacecraft), can attend the launch, and can participate in on-orbit operations.



The nominal payload is a camera that provides a view of the launch separation on-orbit, a buyer-controlled camera on the spacecraft looking back down on earth and into space 24 hours a day, or the buyer can supply a SpaceDev-approved payload. The microsatellite camera can be operated over the Internet by the winning bidder, similar to SpaceDev’s CHIPSat microsat, which is the world’s first orbiting node on the Internet. Specific terms are included in the eBay auction listing. Search eBay for “SpaceDev.”

Jeff Foust offers a pretty good summary of the various efforts to forge a new "vision" to take humans beyond Low Earth Orbit. He suggests that whatever the current President Bush offers, he needs to avoid the mistakes of the previous President Bush and devote sufficient time and energy to getting the vision to reality. Jeff doesn't mention, but I will that opposition to going back to the Moon or even on to Mars will be far less in 2003 than in 1989.

Deborah Orin suggests that President Bush's call for democracy in the Middle East is as historic as President Reagan's call for democracy in Eastern Europe.

China's lunar exploration goals seem to have in mind resource utilization.

I wonder if General Clark would consider this as much of a "joke" if it had contained the words, "black and stupid?"

I suspect that the only way Al Qaeda will recover from this blunder is to try to blame it on the Mossad.

Senator Fritz Hollings wants to address the problems brought on by NASA bureaucracy by creating more bureaucracy.

Actually Bush Haters can be pretty funny. But sometimes I worry they will do harm to themselves and others.

About a month ago, Julianna Liu of Reuters asked Your Humble Servant about the implications of Shenzhou 5.

Dr. David Criswell, Dr. Roger Angel, Dr. Harrison Schmitt, and Dr. Paul Spudis inform United States Senators about the hows and whys of a return to the Moon.

Sean O'Keefe says that a new direction for the US space program is drawing nigh.

Dick Morris suggests that President Bush do to Howard Dean what Bill Clinton did to Bob Dole and Newt Gingrich.

The Democrats tried to make the governors races in Kentucky and Mississippi a referendum on President Bush. Looks like they succeeded, but perhaps not with the results they were hoping for.

This Thursday, the Senate Science, Technology, and Space Committee will hold hearings on lunar explorations. The following will testify:

Harrison Schmitt
Paul Spudis
Roger Angel
David Criswell

First of all, in the spirit of full disclosure, I'm the author of a motion picture screenplay now being shopped about Hollywood by an agent about the early life of Julius Caesar. I've also written an alternate history novel, Children of Apollo that has certain historical personages in situations they never participated in, but behaving in such a way that I believe is consistant with their actual charecter.

Well, it is official. CBS has cancelled The Reagans miniseries. Already we are hearing the cries of "Censorship!" Cannot we right winger, Reagan worshipers take a little free speech?

Well, of course we can, though sometimes we wish we could be afforded the same privledge. What we can't tolerate is a pack of malicious lies pretending to be biographical entertainment.

We also wonder why this almost always happens to conservative heroes. (With the exception of course of GW Bush in the splendid 9/11: DC.) Liberals get Sunrise at Campobello and PT 109. We get trash like The Reagans.

It's not that we object to made up dialogue. We understand that is necessary for dramatic purposes. We do object to such when it is meant to lie about a beloved historical personage.

I think that heads should roll at CBS and I suspect they will. I also think that some attempt should be made to produce an accurate and balanced drama about the Reagans. It's a compelling story.

Drudge is reporting that CBS has cancelled The Reagans miniseries. More on the fallout anon.

Dr. Jeffrey F. Bell summons the ghost of Wernher von Braun from the vasty deep, in an attempt to exorcise him.

Update: Reader Mike Shupp has a tart response:

And I for one find it damned annoying. Von Braun's been dead for a quarter century and the Collier articles came out half a f*****g century ago. There are other people to blame the plight of the American space program on -- Presidents Nixon to George W. Bush come to mind, as well as the entire BoB-OMB crew over the past forty years. One might reflect that the sad fact that Apollo came to fruition at the same time as an unpopular war which soured much of the public on high tech projects in general and high tech aerospace projects in particular had something to do with matters. Ignoring all these factors.IMHO, moves Bell's blatherings from the dignity of "journalism" or even "an opinion piece" to blatant libel.

I'm beginning to wonder, in fact....if I were a college prof and wanted my students to learn research methods by writing papers on any particular subject, would I accept any references to "facts" found on the internet? I'm starting to think No.

Too bad in a way. I think one can make the argument that (a) the 1957-1969 period in world astronautics was shaped by great power rivalries and ideological disputes; (b) the period through say 1990 was shaped by declining international rivalries; the mainstreaming of ecological awareness and limited government growth as dominant ideologies; (c) the period since is being shaped by US unilateralism (or "hegemonism" if this really ticks you off) and the mainstreaming of libertarian economic values; (d) ergo, it is reasonable to expect that late 21st century space programs will be largely determined by ideological values and cultural traits which would seem bizarre and maybe even obnoxious to current observers. But I think it's an argument that deserves more than the 750 words of the typical internet article-posting.

Oh well. No one's likely to remember this after a week's gone by.

The sniping over a possible Bush return to the Moon effort has already begun (Via CD Hall).

There are the usual objections. It'll take too long. It's too expensive. There's no political support. We need to develop a lot of fancy technology to do it. All of those supposition are, of course, either wrong or illrelevent.

I point the gentle reader to the plan championed by Paul Spudis using mainly off the shelf technology (Delta IVs, solar electric propulsion, etc) for about $2.6 billion over five years (from start to boots on the lunar ground.)

NASA's First Lunar Outpost plan, developed under the Space Exploration Initiative, came out to about $19 billion and involved building a new, heavy lifter.

The complete meltdown over the CBS hit piece mini series The Reagans continues. The awesome thing is that the people who perpetrated this actually thought that a drama that depicts the former President as an idiotic, bumbling fool who hates gay people and thinks he might be the anti Christ is "fair and balanced."

I agree with some that burning this thing and then producing a complete remake with the consultation of real historians like Lou Cannon is in order. Also people at CBS who wasted nine million on this trash should have their heads in a basket. One should never try to distort history (and all too common practice in Hollywood) when the people who made it are still around.

Iraq has joined Russia in shaking off the bonds of liberal fiscal policy and now has a flat tax.

Bruce Willis as J. R. Ewing in the big screen version of Dallas? Interesting idea, but I'd choose an actor who can do smarmy better. Say, John Travolta.

In any case, J. R. was Hollywood's version of what a Texas oil billionaire is like. The problem, of course, is that anyone so obviously crooked and ruthless as J. R. would not last a week in the oil industry. No one in their right mind would do business with him.

The best GDP growth since Reagan would seem to be cause for celebration.And it is, except at the Democratic National Committee.

The burning of Southern California seems to be the direct result of madcap environmental policies.

Rand Simberg seems to be as pleased at some at the testimony before McCain's committee as was your humble servant. I'm not sure what is meant by a "socialist" space program as opposed to a "free enterprise" space program and the difference between them. Perhaps we'll hear about that anon.

All right, you little brats, put that book away and get back to your TV and video games. You want to make yourself sick?

The British Tories have once again done what only they can do best, which is to knife their leader in the back and depose him. I would say it's time to bring Maggie back, except I think that the situation calls for a Francis Urguhart.

Senator Zell Miller (D) Georgia, no metrosexual he, has endorsed George W. Bush for President.

Howard Dean expresses confusion about his own sexual and cultural identity.

Leonard David has some more thoughts about the implications of going beyond LEO.

Oh, and he reminds us all, Robert Park will not be happy either.

If all of this develops, then this December, President Bush will say, "We will return to the Moon..."

Despite the fact that the effort will be primarily for technology development, I predict that there will be opposition from two camps. First, the far left because (a) the money should be spent on social programs and (b) George Bush will have proposed it and Bush is the Devil. Second, the libertarian "No!" crowd because, despite the fact they pay lip service to NASA doing technology development, they will oppose any kind of field testing of that technology for reasons I cannot begin to comprehend.

Bob Zubrin will also be unhappy because there won't be a sudden lunge to Mars.

Dr. Michael Baden, the famous forensic pathologist, suggests that Terri Schiavo did not suffer a heart attack, but was rather rendered brain damaged by some kind of head trauma. Schiavo os the center of a "right to die" controversy in Florida.

Shenzhou 6 may carry three men for an entire week.

Looks like Congress is starting to get antsy about the Orbital Space Plane. As well it should.

Ed Morrow wishes someone would make a movie about President Reagan that actually adhered to historical accuracy.

Looks like Ben Affleck is still going to be Jack Ryan in the movie version of Red Rabbit. Now let's see how the producers and writers comspire to ruin this one, just as they did Sum of All Fears.

HBO and the BBC have greenlit a 12 part series set during the civil war between Caesar and Pompey and its aftermath.

The way in which biomedical experiments are chosen for the space station is a mess. Fortunately, someone has actually stood up and said as such.

Now the question is, will NASA listen and take corrective action? Or will NASA, as in the past, shoot the messenger and try to sweep things under the rug?NASA officials inform us that the answer is the former. We'll be watching.

This revelation (no pun intended) from Drudge shows just how over the top (or stark raving insane with hate) the producers of The Reagans really are.

I have to say that while many Clinton haters may think that Clinton is the Anti-Christ, I know of no one who imagined for one moment Clinton admitting it.

Shenzhou 6 may carry two men.

Matt Drudge has been having a lot of fun on Rush Limbaugh today playing scenes from the upcoming scurilous miniseries, The Reagans. No doubt every copy of the tape should be burned and everyone involved dipped in gravy train and fed to the dogs. But, there should also be some payback. So I've written a few scenes, for you edification, from a proposed miniseries The Clintons. For all of you Clintonistas out there who have the desire to complain, remember that the following are just as "true" as much of what is in The Reagans.

INT. VINCE FOSTER’S OFFICE – NIGHT

Hillary enters wearing a fedora and trench coat She is also carrying a glock. Vince Foster is seated at the desk. His eyes widen with surprise when he sees the gun.

HILLARY
Well, lover, it was fun while it lasted,
but you’ve become a liability.

VINCE FOSTER
Hillery, please, I can explain about—

HILLARY .
Bye, Vince.

She fires. The bullet hits Vince foster in the head, killing him instantly. Hillary puts the weapon in her purse and takes out a cell phone. She calls.

HILLARY
Ok, I need a clean up crew in Foster’s office.
Take his body and dump it in Fort Marcy Park.

INT. THE OVAL OFFICE – NIGHT

Clinton is laying on the carpet with the great seal of the President on it, cradling Monica while she kisses him. His pants are around his ankles.

MONICA
So come on, you big creep, when are you
gonna leave Hillary?

CLINTON
Did I say anything about that?

MONICA
But you promised!

CLINTON
Now, darlin’. You just behave yourself.
Little girls like you can disappear just
like that.

INT. WHITE HOUSE UPSTAIRS BEDROOM – DAY

Hillary picks up a lamp and tosses it at Clinton. He ducks and it crashes against the wall.

HILLARY
You stupid bastard! Barbara Streisand was my
friend!

CLINTON
Aw, Hillary, it didn’t mean nothing—

HILLARY
I’ll kill you!

She picks up a small statuette and lunges at Clinton. Two Secret Service agents grab her and take the weapon out of her hand. They begin to drag her out of the room.

CLINTON
Maybe we should take about this when
you’re calmer?

HILLARY
You just remember. One word from
me about that Chinese deal and you’re
done! No matter what Bob Bennett does!

CLINTON
I can still get you that Senate seat.

The Secret Service agents drag her through the door and out of the room.

CLINTON
Bitch.

Sean O'Keefe addresses the whole space station safety issue and rather quickly if I do say so.

Michael Gallagher, of Chonan City, South Korea, is the latest to call for us to rise to the challenge of the Dragon.

Speaking of liars and the lies they tell, Rich Lowry writes about Hillary Clinton.

President Reagan's AIDS policy was far more compassionate than will be depicted in a lying, biased miniseries on CBS.

Edward Hudgins has a sound strategy to beat the Chinese in the new space race. Unleash the private market.

The impression ones gets is that once again NASA is ignoring risks and putting the lives of astronauts at hazard.

Maybe. But on the other hand, the only way to ensure that no one dies in space ever again is to never fly anyone in space ever again.

Looks like Japan is all of the sudden interested in manned space fight. I wonder why that is?

Wouldn't you have loved to have been a fly on the wall at this meeting? And the one that happened after it.

"The Reagans", a very biased hit piece about the former President and his wife, apparently contains a lie about Reagan's feelings about Gays and AIDS. Far from being a homophobe, President Reagan was very tolerant and actually campaigned against an anti-Gay initiative in California in the late 70s. CBS should be ashamed of its collective self.