I readed elsewhere that fusion power building designed for such as heluim 3 fuel already builded, so it's not really problem.

I didnt mean 'mine'is really mine as we do it at the earth. i readed that heluim 3 easily lay on the moonground! Maybe just digging with a shovel is enough to take a sample of heluim 3.

better do mine so you make profit and free power than only walking around and doing research in the 'researchbase'

30 years???? it used to be that 20-25 years was concidered a "generation". With the life expectancy over 80 now, I guess that "30 years" is code for: "when your kids can do it". :P

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All the answers are out there, you just have to find the right question. A. B. Gaston

A former NASA historian appeared on CNN on Wednesday evening. His take on the Bush plan was that it was simply an effort to bail out the obscenely expensive ISS. This makes sense to me since the funds being allocated are not nearly enough to reach the Moon. Building a lunar base would cost tens of billions, perhaps hundreds of billions, more.

Of course, if there's no usable water at the lunar poles, a lunar colony is dead in the water so to speak.

Dave Mitsky

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Chance favors the prepared mind.
De gustibus non est disputandum.
Never attribute to malice that which can be adequately explained by stupidity.

The best hope is that in the light of GB II plan for the Moon and beyond NASA can persuade ESA and Japan, Russia, etc. to give up on completing the ISS and join it in going back to the Moon and Mars asap. Get rid of the shuttle and ISS earlier than 2010 and concentrate all resources on robotic and manned missions to the Moon, Mars and beyond. Scuttling the shuttle and ISS would free up lots of money for the new program and the sooner this is available the better.

Water at the lunar poles would certainly simplify the establishment of a base there but it's not essential. Apollo and Surveyor found oxygen-bearing minerals in the lunar soil that with the addition of sunlight and hydrogen from Earth (initially, later from ET sources) and good water recycling and recovery systems make lunar bases viable even without ice on the Moon. Even if there is ice on the Moon there may not be enough to make permanent bases there viable long term. Icy asteroids and comets are eventually going to have to be mined to supply large bases on the Moon with water.

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David S.

"Why are the pretty ones always insane?"
-- Chief Clancy Wiggum, The Simpsons.

Just got back from a trip to Washington D.C. there is in some sectors of govt the thought, regarding President Bush's announcment, "What is he thinking?" These opinions are held by pretty powerful individuals. It remains to be seen what will happen. I still hope a permanent Moon and or Mars base will happen, but I'm not holding my breath past the next election.

Mick

I wouldn't count on Europe or Japan to come up with large sums of money. In the first place there is no money. I think Europe and Japan will have to spend their money on other things. For example they have a population which is groing older fast. Their is allready doubt if we can give everyone a good pension. Second, for the moment in Europe not a lot of people even realise we have our own space agency. So politicians aren't very interested in the space program. And i think Esa is happy with that. So they will not start investing in a program wich will atract a lot of attention from politicians. And there are countries like the United Kingdom who event don't spend a buck on manned spaceflight, and i doubt if they will change their mind. And last, the guy who proposed this plan is called George Bush. In Europe there are not lot of people who like this guy.

There are big problems now, so it is hard to know what the furture will bring. Saftey is looked at hard, and finances are weighing it down. NASA was fantastic when it put people on the moon, but can we build a city on the Moon now, it is hard to say

I'll do it, hopefully with some contacts in Colorado. As one of them put it, they are in the unique position to lead a mission to the Moon, because "we are one mile closer to the goal than most everyone else".

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Pre-Quote: 'To survive one has to experiment. When the environment changes, the traditional way of doing things doesn't work.'

Quote:
"It's the outriders, the organisms that seem to be maladjusted before the change, which are the only ones that survive these changes...in that way a species continues."

Carl Sagan