Bush Offers the Moon as a Steppingstone

As a former consulting scientist to the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, I view President Bush’s space project as just another boondoggle for the defense industry, Halliburton included.

The cost of a manned flight can be a hundred times the cost of an unmanned probe and does not provide more data. In many cases, less data is obtained. And where do we think we’re going? The closest possibly habitable solar system is 200,000 light years away. That means that if you could get there by saying “Beam me up, Scotty,” the trip would take 200,000 Earth years. What arrived would be a small pile of ashes and dust.

The bottom line is that we are earthbound and, given the destruction we are waging on our air, water and trees, this planet isn’t going to sustain human life much longer.

Marty Bluestein

Portland, Maine

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Bush’s top 10 reasons for his space plan: (10) California aerospace industry voters; (9) Florida aerospace industry voters (Can’t count on Jeb); (8) No more global warming studies from NASA; (7) Distract media from there being no WMD and no Al Qaeda link in Iraq; (6) What’s a little more debt? (Paul O’Neill’s a wimp); (5) Trumps Kennedy’s moon mission (My rocket’s bigger than yours!); (4) New opportunities for Halliburton; (3) Osama bin Laden can’t get to us up there; (2) Karl Rove said it was a good idea (Stick to principles); (1) Another flight suit (Yes!).

Randall Zook

Culver City

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I wonder if your sour grapes Jan. 14 editorial about Bush’s proposal, “3, 2, 1, 0 ... Wait a Minute,” would have been written 30 years ago when Southern California had a booming aerospace industry. Is there any chance that California’s state and local governments’ well-known hostility to business, impossible regulatory and permitting climate, insane workers’ compensation laws and high taxes had anything to do with high-paying, high-tech jobs going to Texas and Florida?

Just wondering.

Jim Barron

San Pedro

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Re “ ‘Worlds Beyond’ Are Goals of Bush Space Plan,” Jan. 15: I picked up The Times at the front door and didn’t know whether to laugh or cry.

We have an unfinished adventure continuing in Afghanistan. We have an unfinished disaster continuing in Iraq. Every state and municipality in the nation is struggling with monumental budget deficits. Health-care costs are skyrocketing. No significant jobs are being created to employ those 9% who are out of work. Yet, in spite of those incontestable facts, Ralph Kramden in the White House says he is going to shoot us to the moon.

Oh, now I get it. It’s such an obvious joke, The Times was simply trying to cheer me up. I appreciate that.

Mitchell Tendler

San Diego