Ecobreves – UNITED STATES: Politics Behind Space Program

By IPS Correspondents and - - Reprint | | Print |

SAN FRANCISCO, Jan 19 2004 (IPS) - The announcement that the United States will establish a lunar space station by 2020 and use it as a base to reach Mars is seen by critics as a political move by President George W. Bush to boost his chances for re-election in November. “The main challenge is whether the U.S. public is willing to make a long-term commitment to human exploration beyond Earth orbit, and thus whether there is the political will to provide the resources to accomplish this objective,” John M. Logsdon, director of the space policy institute at George Washington University, told Tierramérica.

A trip to the red planet could take 18 to 30 months, round trip, and it must be determined “whether, and how, humans can make that long journey,” said Logsdon.

More than 90 percent of the budget for the first five years of the new space initiative will come from the shifting of existing funds of NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration), which will mean the reduction or elimination of other projects.