My ONE issue w/ Obama - and I Love the guy

[darknemus]

My single greatest issue with Obama is his desire to cut NASA's funding - some stories put it at potential budget cuts of 50% or greater. This worries me. Does anyone have any solid information on Obama's plans / thoughts on Space Exploration?

For the record - I'm in Florida, so I didn't vote in the primary (as I was told it 'doesn't count' ) and I fully plan on supporting our Nominee in the General (ideally, Obama) - I just would like to know that our Space Program isn't going to die off with him in office, you know? Maybe i'm a ridiculous idealist but I'd love to see a man on Mars and us back on the Moon in my lifetime. Not to mention further research into propulsion systems that could truly go towards carrying the Human Race beyond our planet in the future.

Any thoughts? Thanks!

[thunder rising]

1. Apparently you are NOT going to read his position paper. After all this time you're still clueless?

[darknemus]

2. Well that was nice :-P

Clueless, no - I honestly didn't know he had a 'position paper' on the subject. I will admit to not being as informed on his positions as some. Relax and don't get so defensive, next time - sheesh.

[BlooInBloo]

5. Got a link handy?

[HCE SuiGeneris]

8. Link to Obama's Space Policy

http://www.spaceref.com/news/viewsr.html?pid=26647

[BlooInBloo]

9. Cool - thanks!

[HCE SuiGeneris]

10. You are most welcome.

:hi:

[Texas Hill Country]

6. ummm... he has proposed cutting the NASA budget, though i dont know by how much

[NightWatcher]

3. NO candidate is perfect

I too have issues with a few of Obama's positions, but I prefer the whole package over any of the other candidates

[darknemus]

4. Agreed

No one is going to be the 'perfect pick' and he is so much more in tune, from what I know of his positions, anyway, in my line of thinking - so yes, he is "My Candidate". No worries there. I don't want people to think I'm using the thread to bash Obama - far from it, I think he rocks.

[cloudythescribbler]

7. Personally, I don't mind it if he DOES cut NASA's budget, as long as ...

the money is spent wisely (eg to reduce the deficit, or to finance universal health care or ecoindustrialization.) We face an UNBELIEVABLE crisis in global warming, where the LEADING CLIMATOLOGIST, Jim Hansen, says we ALREADY have CO2 levels in the atmosphere that are too high, and need to lower not merely EMISSIONS but ATMOSPHERIC Greenhouse Gases (GHGs) levels on an absolute scale.

Mars will still be there, and be basically the same in 100 years, but what about THIS planet, huh?

[RaleighNCDUer]

12. That's why we need to be a 2-planet species.

And we need to get started on it ASAP.

Six months of this war would pay for a moon colony.

A year would pay for a manned expedition to Mars.

[cloudythescribbler]

13. I do NOT understand the TIME RUSH on the fabulously expensive project of settling Mars... nt

[RaleighNCDUer]

14. Because the more damage we do to this planet, and the more our

burgeoning population explodes, the less capable we will be of doing it.

If resources are stretched now, what will it be like in another 30 years when there are 9 billions+ on the planet?

Short of a plague wiping out 75% of the world's population, we will only see greater need, and greater deprivation in the years to come. In another 30 years we may not even be capable of sending up common satellites, much less launching missions to Mars.

We could pay for a Mars mission with what we've spent on a single year of this war. We could probably set up a moon base for half that. In another generation, with another 3+ billion people contesting for the same resources, our efforts will be directed at preventing famine, and providing clean water to the world - not space exploration. And if we do kill ourselves off, if there is no secondary population off world, then Humanity is done.

[RaleighNCDUer]

11. My thoughts are that NASA is going to have to have a little down

time to recover from Bushite infiltration. While I agree that we should have a moon colony, and we should have a manned Mars expedition, Bush's plans for those were (IMHO) mere covers for the weaponization of space. Make some grandiose plans, throw a lot of money at NASA, and channel 70% of it into bomb platforms and satellite killers.