OK - now I have some time.
It's all good Dubya. You finally did something almost right.
Firstly. I believe that every dollar the USA has ever spent in and on space exploration has returned around $7 to the economy over the years. Name another investment that returns the same amount. The only issue with the investments made, is that there is a SIGNIFICANT delay from the time of investment, until the payback, and the amount of investment required is huge. Huge in terms of your income and my income - not huge compared to the Federal Budget.
The best and greatest example is Boeing. Since the 70's Boeing was the world's No.1 producer of wide-body jets. This was a direct result of the aerospace investment made in the sixties. Ten years later, Boeing started cranking out the best jets in the world, and no one could touch them. Now, after 30 years of aimless and pointless NASA, and the reduction of R&D, Boeing was, in 2003, overtaken by Airbus as the World's No.1 manufacturer. This may change in 10 years from now given the new targets set for NASA. Boeing will probably end up making much of the hardware needed - and this in itself may allow Boeing to fight back against airbus.
Firstly let's tackle the money issue. The Fed for 2004 is 2.2 Trillion US dollars. NASA will recieve less than 1% of the budget funds - a total of (IIRC) 15.7 Billion for FY2005. The Military budget for 2001 was 305 Billion. (2003-2004 numbers will be closer to 700 Billion including Iraq).
Now - if you want to complain about spending money - go complain about three quarters of a trillion dollars. Typically, the USA NEEDS to spend 300 Billion Dollars because it does not have a clue about foreign policy. "Spend our way to peace and happiness" is the philosophy and it does not work. We know this from history.
Failing to correct the mistakes of the past, and admit those mistakes, as well as failing to form a cohesive, responsible foreign policy is costing the US people probably 200 Billion a year (at least). A decent FP would mean you could drop 50-75% of the military budget with absolutely no reduction in security of American interests.
Those of you who worry about the US deficit, stop worrying. The USD is the de facto currency in several locations around the world, and a huge percentage of "foreign debt" is a joke - because those dollars will NEVER EVER be brought back into the USA. Hell, if all the money outside the USA was to come back, your country would be instantly bankrupted. So relax.
But we aren't here to discuss political failings for the last 50 years.
We are here top talk about the Moon and Mars.
The moon is an excellent location to start. 500 Billion for a permanent moon base? Hmm. Maybe. But so what? That'd be spent over many many years, and is an ASSET not a LIABILITY. See? You look at that money as being thrown in the
toilet, whereas the money is in actual fact, sitting in "The Luna Bank of the American People, Mare Imbrium Branch". The interest rate is VERY high in this bank, but it's a term deposit, which means you don't get to make a withdrawl.
But your kids do.
Let's look at why we (humans) go back to the moon. We have plenty of unfinished business there. Last time, America put 12 men on the moon, and even THAT number was so high it bored the American people. All you wanted was to beat the Russians. And you did. Congrats. Well done. Excellent work. Pat yourself on the back.
There's several major reasons to go back to the Moon.
1) POWER. Yeah. Electricity. More than you could ever want - and in two yummy flavours! Solar *AND* Fusion - but wait - there's MORE! You ALSO get this fabulous <s>set of Ginsu steak knives</s> world monopoly! AND AT NO EXTRA CHARGE!!! And, if you dial in the next five minutes, we also add in the next item on the list - for only another 100 Billion!
<u>Solar Power</u>: 18 Terawatts of solar energy falls on the poles of the moon constantly, bombarding the surface with heavy particles and fierce radiation 24/7/365. Setting up Heliotropic (Sun following - the moon rotates once each time it travels around the earth: periodicity 1:1) solar energy farms at the luna poles can potentially supply ALL the energy requirements of the USA.
Microwaving the power back to Earth requires setting up receiving farms in Wyoming. They'll be about 20 Square miles each. Microwaves are COMPLETELY safe - and the systems self adjust, and if the beams fall off the farms, output is cut automatically.
<u>Fusion Power</u> A better solution to solar energy - or at least - a better solution for long term use, is to extract He3 (Super Helium) from the top six inches of Luna dust/topsoil. Helium is an odd element, it is a non-naturally occuring gas on Earth, and was discovered very late in the day. He3 is an
isotope of normal helium, and it can only be formed by bombarding normal Helium atoms with heavy particles, causing it to gain a Proton. He3 has the unusual property of being the isotope with the lowest fusing temperature of all. It fuses at about 2 million degrees lower than Tritium (The Heavy isoptope of Hydrogen) and is therefore the best fuel for Fusion Reactors. (Fusion is "safe" nuke power. You can switch the reactor off, and when it cools down you can walk inside - there's no heavy radiation!)
1KG of He3 will provide enough electricty, when fused, to power the USA for a day!
Predictions put the amount of He3 in the top 6 inches of dust all across the moon at enough to power the entire Earth for several million years. Imagine cornering THIS market!!! Not only do you get to develop He3 Reactor technology, and sell it, but you get to monopolise both this AND the fuel! W00T.
<U>Metals</u>: If you fill a bucket with moon dust, and pass it through a solar-powered furnace, this is how the stuff breaks down:
Aluminium: 40%
slag: 30%
Titantium: 20%
Various Gases: 5%
Trace elements: 5%
So, no worries about building materials. The largest source of titanium anywhere, and just sitting there in the dust/dirt. The gases include Oxygen, noble gases amongst others.
You use the Titanium and Aluminium to make whatever you want, and you use a Mass Driver to throw the rest into orbit to be collected by an orbiting facility which then carries the stuff to the Lagrange points and Earth Orbit for further manufacturing.
You use the slag to cover whatever structures you make on the moon. It acts as a radiation shield and insulationn. Spray it on like that rock-crete stuff.
<u>Water</u>: We don't know for sure, and it will be a cruel blow if there's none there, but it is *suspected* (hoped!) that at the poles, the craters which cast permanent shadows contain water ice in the dust and dirt. While we build our solar generating arrays you extract the water from the dirt.
Using electrolysis, you distill the water for drinking, and bathing etc, and elctrolyse the remainder - separating it into Hydrogen and Oxygen. Thus you have made rocket fuel, and breathable air, in one easy step. Nitrogen might be hard to come by on the moon, and a pure oxygen atmosphere is very dangerous, so we might end up having to breath a helium/Oxygen mix - like deep sea divers. This is going to make for some pretty hilarious conversations!
<u>Telescopes</u>: Hubble has served us well, but it is nearing the end of it's useful life. With the focus switching to manned exploration, the James Webb Space telescope (NGST) should be converted to a moon-based telescope. In fact, 2 or three additional duplicates should be built, and mounted at various locations on the moon. Eventually, you create an array of telescopes with a baseline some 2000 km across. This acts as an interferometer par excellence.
The array allows you to look everywhere, and detect planets with more accuracy, and even will allow us to start analysing the atmosphere of these new worlds. They also provide us with a microscope to examine the sun in ever increasing detail. Providing 3D views of our newest star.
The scientific impact of these telescopes can't be OVER stated. They can also be used to detect and map the Near Earth Objects (NEOs) and Asteroids in the Asteroid belt - thus providing Earth with a near-perfect ability to detect inbound rocks.
Here's where I point out that while only a single rock would take out the ISS, the chances of this occuring are stupidly small. No satelite has EVER been taken out by space junk, or meteoroids. To put it in perspective, large rocks fall on the Earth about every 50 million years.
Our new abilities to observe local space will allow us to not just save ourselves from ALL inbound rocks - regardless of size (even up to 100km across!) but from man-made space junk too.
Sending fusion powered lasers to the rocks allows us to divert the course of these rocks (Using "Light Pressure")into a highly elliptical orbit around Earth - and provides us with Teratons of raw materials.
<u>Moon Base for Exploration</u>: Sending stuff from the bottom of Earth's gravity-well is very tough to do. The moon's gravity well is tiny, and with no atmosphere, craft descending to, and leaving from the Luna surface require NO heat shielding, nor aerodynamic shape whatsoever.
Building and launching stuff from the moon is a piece of cake compared to Earth. The only things that EVER need to come from earth is stuff which can't be made using ISRU (In-Situ Resource Utilisation) - and people!
<u>Research</u>: The Lunar Surface offers us the ability to examine what the Earth was like 4 Billion years ago - and will answer many many questions about the origin of the moon, the "construction" phase of our Solar system, and much more about the Earth too.
Especially dangerous research can take place on the moon. Think Nanobots. Think "Universal Assemblers". If it all goes wrong - few people suffer. (Of course, we don't want to convert the Moon to Grey goo. But it's better than converting the entire Earth to Grey Goo!)
<u>Money</u>: Whoever makes the investment to conquer the Moon will dominate the Solar System's economy for many hundreds of years.
<u>Terrforming Base</u>: Eventually, we'll want to terrform the moon. It's entirely possible, we'd just have to create an atmosphere about 600 miles thick. This isn't a cake-walk, but ultimately, it's doable.
Mars is more likely to be a first stop call for terraforming. It'll take about 1000 years at the best guess. We probably won't start on that for a hundred years or more - however. basically we'll have to destroy Mars to terrform it.
We'll bombard it with water-ice asteroids until the surface temperature raises into the double digits (C) and then seed it with custom-design bacteria. Later we'll add plants, and use Fusion Reactors to create Ozone to protect the surface from radiation. (Mars has almost no electromagnetic field which protects Earth).
Need more reasons to go back?
There are plenty. But I ran out of time.
It's about the Money. Dubya is only putting an extra Billion into Nasa in the next 5 years - and that simply isn't going to be enough to pull off even building the CEV. *sigh*