Word: nasa
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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That would be ambitious and expensive -- up to $150 billion. But the payback would be great. Such a specific, long-term goal would invigorate NASA. It would revive public interest in science, providing new pep for a sector of the educational system that has become disturbingly weak. It would stimulate innovation in everything from materials science to computers to communications. It would create jobs. And, least tangible but perhaps most important, it would add enormously to the nation's prestige...
...take the steps to get us there." That would eliminate the let's-build-it-and-see-what-it's-good-for approach. Far from withering, other space initiatives would be lifted by the rising tide of national interest and funding. Unmanned probes to the planets would continue, and NASA would still be able to launch the Mission to Planet Earth, a series of satellites designed to study the planet's environment and give scientists the information they need to head off ecological disaster...
...most reasonable date for a Mars mission is 2020. That allows plenty of time for a measured approach and spreads the expenditure over a sensible period. It also gives NASA ample opportunity to choose the next goal after Mars -- exploration of the asteroid belt, for example, or a manned trip to the outer planets. Robot probes would have to study the Red Planet in depth first. One, the Mars Observer, is scheduled for a 1992 launch, and others would have to follow...
Before such a moon base can be built, NASA will have to get some kind of space station: the massive components needed for a lunar habitat are too heavy to lift from earth and will have to be assembled in space. The station will also be needed for assembling a bulky Mars vehicle and studying the effects of long-term space flight. But a single station may not be the best option. Several experts have suggested breaking it down into smaller units. One such station, the Industrial Space Facility, has already been designed by a Houston firm, Space Industries...
...NASA and the Defense Department have already begun work on two new launchers to make space-station construction feasible. One is a heavy-lift unmanned rocket for massive payloads. The other is the National Aerospace Plane, or "Orient Express." Smaller than the shuttle, it would take off like an airplane from a runway, soar into space to deliver its human cargo, then return and land. And NASA has plans to convert the present shuttle into a cargo-only model, with a larger payload than the manned version. Together, these launchers would give NASA much needed flexibility...