Under President George W. Bush, the United States and specifically NASA, saw an increase in space exploration. Bush even mentioned the possibility of revisiting the moon, and NASA obliged with plans for a new class of space shuttle that could make the trip on it's own. Enter President Obama, who not only scaled NASA back, but ended manned exploration of space. To start the year of 2012, China announced that it will have a man on the moon by 2018. In response to that, Buzz Aldrin, second man to walk on the moon (in case you didn't know) wrote this extremely well put and thought out article, that we all should read. Not only does he go into why we should go to Mars, but details what kind of space craft we would need.
Personally, I think we've more important things to worry about right this moment. However we must be sure never to lose our wonder and desire to explore. Maybe now is the time. We definitely should begin planning as if we don't start, we'll never get there. Would truly be depressing to see the US lose it's edge.
...and we're paying MILLIONS for the Russians to take our astronauts into orbit, atm. This president's failure touches all things, even the extraterrestrial.
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