SPACE TRAVEL NEEDS TO BE MORE THAN JUST AN IDYLLIC PIPE DREAM

Not to sound like a party pooper here, but I have some serious reservations about NASA's ideas to get a fully staffed lunar colony in less than 18 years.

For one thing, NASA's preliminary budget for the whole project is only $108B--far too low a number in my opinion; especially when you have to factor in whatever form the new CEV (Crew Excursion Vehicle) will take, plus the costs of completing the ISS (International Space Station)--if it will ever be completed. Secondly, you have to deal with the reality of NASA's budget problems and cuts in scientific programs.

Programs which will actually be needed in order to get to the Moon!

If it sounds like I am long-winded here, it's only because I'm still going around in circles trying to figure out just how much money we've thrown at these so-called "ideas" over the years, but wondering--if at all--if they will bear any real fruit in the future.

Given how Bush's pitch on putting man back on the Moon and Mars went, I don't think our space program will last another decade--let alone two.

We are simply too far gone as a superpower on all fronts. We don't have the extra resources to start resurrecting dead dreams and useless ideas--especially when we have an administration spending our tax monies faster than we can collect them.

Don't get me wrong: Going to the Moon is a great endeavor. But when you're tapped everywhere you look, how are you planning on paying for this pipedream?

Cut back on defense spending and invading of other countries?

Schuyler Thorpe

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Everett, WA 98204

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