Deeper into space

The Bush administration will propose resuming manned space exploration, with permanent settlements on the moon and eventualy flights to Mars.

By Gary Robbins

January 9, 2004

Mars or bust.

Sounds like an improbable motto. But it could become the mantra of the Bush administration, which will announce next week that it intends to send humans back to the moon, possibly on a permanent basis. The idea: Develop the technology and know-how needed to eventually send people to Mars.

Bush's staff confirmed Thursday night that such a plan is taking shape in a bold move to resume manned space exploration. The proposal comes less than a year after seven astronauts were killed when the space shuttle Columbia disintegrated during re-entry. And it comes more than a generation after 12 American astronauts walked on the moon.

The idea drew cheers, jeers and skepticism Thursday night from people who frequently turn their head to the heavens with a sense of wanderlust.

"A reinvigorated space program is long overdue. We've been languishing without any clear direction," said Buzz Aldrin, who became the second human to walk on the moon during the mission of Apollo 11 in July 1969.

But Aldrin, a former Laguna Beach resident, said no one should assume that a moon shot would quickly lead to a jaunt to Mars.

"There are a lot of interim steps we'd have to take before we'd be joining Spirit on Mars," Aldrin said, referring to the robotic geologist the United States landed on the Red Planet Saturday night.

Gregory Benford had a different take on the matter.

"If the eventual goal is to get to Mars, fine. I like it," said Benford, a University of California, Irvine, astrophysicist who advises the National Aeronautics and Space Administration on space travel.

"But going to the moon is, at best, a stepping stone. And you don't have to go there to develop the technologies you need to go to Mars."

Neither idea - a return to the moon or a trip to Mars - would happen for at least a few years. The United States does not have a rocket capable of dispatching humans to another world and bringing them back. But such a booster could be constructed, as was evident in Orange County in the 1960s. The second and third stages of the three-stage Saturn V Apollo rockets were built in Seal Beach and Huntington Beach.

A return to those heady days greatly appeals to Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, R-Huntington Beach, chairman of the space and aeronautics subcommittee, which oversees NASA's budget. There is a picture of an atronaut on the moon in Rohrabacher's Capitol Hill office. The caption says, "Return to the moon. This time let's stay."

"I have long advocated that goal as a challenge that was fitting of this gerneration," Rohrabacher said. "It's a challenge that would cause us to push the limits of our capabilities, and at the same time is doable."