Obama/McCain and space exploration

[cheerfulgreek]

Originally Posted by LightBulb

A friend who works at NASA told me that Obama wants to cut NASA's funding drastically. I researched this a bit a while back and found people writing that this was terrible because it would keep new people from beginning careers at NASA. Essentially, this said that when NASA started getting sufficient funding again, it would start back years behind schedule because a new set of people would have to be trained.

I don't know McCain's stance on this.

o.k. I like Obama a lot and I totally agree with most of the things he's said, but to cut back NASA's funding totally does not make any sense at all! If he makes it in office, (and I still want him to) he's going to have to change this. Seriously. I don't even think it would cost that much. I mean, the United States has on hand all the technologies required for undertaking within a decade an aggressive, continuing program of human Mars exploration. I think we actually can reach Mars with relatively small spacecraft launched directly to Mars by boosters embodying the same technology that carried astronauts to the Moon eons ago. I don't see why he would want to cut funding. It's not like we're just beginning. I think we could be ready to go within the next 5-10 years, without spending a ton of money.