October 2009 Meeting President's Remarks

Space Exploration and Colonization

The Augustine Committee has recently released its draft report on human spaceflight plans, stating essentially what we have known all along, that the Bush administration underfunded the moon and Mars initiatives by roughly three billion dollars per year. Bush's approach was to stop flying the space shuttle to save money, stop supporting the international space station to save money, and stretch and slip the exploration program to the point that it's not viable. This is typical Repugligan policy: throw everything into war, cost be damned, and then scrimp and save on important public projects like education, environmental protection, technology, and science.

It's repugnant. What we need to do is throttle back the war making, ease ourselves out of Iraq and Afghanistan in a responsible but resolute manner, and once again begin to build the space infrastructure that can inspire our youth to pursue education and careers in science and technology. We can't colonize the moon and Mars on a shoestring. We should fully fund space exploration to maintain our technical abilities and to provide constructive challenges that when met, will inspire pride and confidence in all people of the world.

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Last updated October 14, 2009, by Rick Wagner.