2004 President Bush unveils vision for Moon and Beyond President seeks $1 BILLION more in NASA funding!!

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Saying "the desire to explore and understand is part of our character," President Bush Wednesday unveiled an ambitious plan to return Americans to the moon by 2020 and use the mission as a steppingstone for future manned trips to Mars and beyond.

"We do not know where this journey will end, yet we know this -- human beings are headed into the cosmos," Bush said. "Mankind is drawn to the heavens for the same reason we were once drawn into unknown lands and across the open sea. We choose to explore space because doing so improves our lives and lifts our national spirit."

The president unveiled what he billed as a "new course" for the nation's space program in a speech at NASA headquarters, shifting the long-term focus from the space shuttle and the international space station to the creation of a new manned space vehicle that will be flying with a crew in 10 years and will return humans to the moon within 16 years.

Bush proposed spending $12 billion over the next five years on the effort. About $1 billion of that will come from an increase in NASA's budget, while the other $11 billion would come from shifting funds from existing programs within NASA's current $86 billion budget. The overall NASA budget would stay at about 1 percent of the federal budget, according to White House figures.

But some in Congress questioned whether the funding would be enough to achieve the president's ambitious goals. And the project drew criticism from groups who say the money would be better spent on domestic programs. (Full story)

However, Bush conceded the initial funding for the space exploration plan would be "only a beginning" and that future funding decisions "will be guided by the progress we make in achieving these goals."

The idea behind returning to the moon will be to develop the capability to use it as a launch pad for deeper space exploration, as well as tapping resources on the lunar surface that could be used in those missions, Bush said.

"Establishing an extended human presence on the moon could vastly reduce the cost of further space exploration, making possible ever more ambitious missions," he said. "Lifting heavy spacecraft and fuel out of the Earth's gravity is expensive. Spacecraft assembled and provisioned on the moon could escape its far lower gravity using far less energy and thus far less cost."

Bush also said the soil of the moon "contains raw materials that might be harvested and processed into rocket fuel or breathable air."

"With the experience and knowledge gained on the moon, we will then be ready to take the next steps of space exploration -- human missions to Mars and to worlds beyond," he said.

The president did not announce a date for a Mars mission, but administration sources said the earliest date for a journey to the red planet would be 2030.

NASA Administrator Sean O'Keefe said that "each of the individual milestones and objectives is to be priced out. ... [The cost] depends on which option you choose. But between now and then, the objective is to try to find the means to make any of those debates possible."

Bush pledged that unlike the Apollo effort, which was a race with the Soviet Union, the United States would welcome international participation in the project.

"We'll invite other nations to share the challenges and opportunities of this new era of discovery," he said. "The vision I've outlined today is a journey, not a race, and I call on other nations to join us on this journey, in the spirit of cooperation and friendship."

However, as part of the shift in focus, the United States will wrap up its current obligations on building the international space station by 2010, after which it will retire the remaining three space shuttles used to build and service the station, Bush said. Russia and 14 other countries are partners with the United States in the ISS.

The shuttles have been grounded since Columbia broke up while returning to Earth last February. The president said NASA will return the shuttles to flight for the remainder of the decade, based upon recommendations from the Columbia Accident Investigation Board.

The board has told NASA that it would have to re-certify the space shuttles if it wanted to fly them beyond 2010 -- an onerous and expensive task the Bush administration opted to forgo.

The initial spurt of new funding will be used to begin work on what a "crew exploration vehicle," which O'Keefe said will "look totally different" from the space shuttle. It will be developed and tested by 2008 and will conduct its first manned mission no later than 2014. Lunar missions will begin between 2015 and 2020.

The new vehicle will be capable of traveling to the space station. It has not been determined whether the craft will be reusable, like the space shuttle, or a spacecraft like those on the Apollo missions, which were used just once.

Also, NASA will begin sending a series of robotic missions to the moon beginning in 2008 to conduct research and prepare for future missions, and research will be conducted on the space station on the long-term effects of extended space travel on human physiology.

In his speech, Bush touted the new space exploration effort as an investment that "will be repaid many times over" in technological advancements.

Past space exploration "has brought tangible benefits that improve our lives in countless ways," he said.

"Along this journey, we'll make many technological breakthroughs. We don't know yet what those breakthroughs will be, but we can be certain they'll come."

The president also said that "the fascination generated by further exploration will inspire our young people to study math and science and engineering and create a new generation of innovators and pioneers."

Bush also made his case for why manned exploration is needed, rather than sending unmanned missions, such as the Mars rover, Spirit, currently sending information back from the red planet.

"The human thirst for knowledge ultimately cannot be satisfied by even the most vivid pictures or the most detailed measurements," he said. "We need to see and examine and touch for ourselves, and only human beings are capable of adapting to the inevitable uncertainties posed by space travel."

Information on PKSO

United States Wanted To Blow Up the Moon "TOP SECRET PROJECT DISCOVERED"

In the 1950s the Earth would have witnessed the moon blown up, had the US government completed its secret project intended to intimidate the Soviet Union and display its technological power during the notorious space race.

According to the secret project, called “A Study of Lunar Research Flights”, as well as “Project A119”, a missile with a nuclear bomb on board would have been launched from an unknown location.

Then, the nuclear bomb would have caused an explosion upon its collision with the only natural satellite of the Earth.

By 1959 the United States had deployed intercontinental ballistic missiles and the project looked quite feasible.

But it was given up in the end due to fears about the bomb detonating prematurely and space contamination.

The project was kept secret for nearly 45 years and the US government has never formally confirmed its involvement in the study.

All scientists involved in the project could have been accused of a security breach, had they revealed any detail of the classified project.

The project was officially canceled in January 1959 and the Unites States concentrated its efforts on ‘the first man on the moon’ project.

                                      Aid campaign for the victims of Super Storm Sandy

                                            By: PeaceKeeper Space Organization 

                                  

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We are working with A&W Home Improvements who have partnered with PeaceKeeper Space Organization to repair the homes that were affected by Sandy.

If we can raise $20,000 we will be able repair 50 homes in areas hit hard by Sandy.

We Need Your Help to give the gift of a safe home to the victims of this devastating storm!

      The whole amount of this campaign will go towards the reconstruction effort.

      

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Program To Test Space Vehicles On The Big Island

A program to test space vehicles on the Big Island is getting an infusion of millions of new investment dollars.

The state is putting $2.34 million into the Pacific International Space Center for Exploration Systems to help the program prepare for missions to Mars or the moon.

Rob Kelso, the new director of the program, known as PISCES, said long-term plans call for a high-tech park in Hawaii for research into technologies related to space travel and colonization.

One project for the near term is developing a concretelike building material that can be used in space and on Earth. Kelso said there also will be continued testing and research of robotic systems being designed for use on the moon or Mars.

Some of the equipment on the Mars rover Curiosity was tested on Mauna Kea in 2008 because that terrain is so similar to the basaltic makeup of Mars, said Kelso, who is a former NASA space shuttle flight director at Johnson Space Center.

He joined other researchers and space enthusiasts at the annual PISCES conference in Waikoloa this week for discussions and demonstrations of robotic equipment designed to explore challenging space environments.

Another avenue for research would be to develop new ways to extract resources, including oxygen and water, from the terrain on Mars, which has a chemical composition strikingly similar to portions of the Hawaii island landscape.

The PISCES project was founded in 2007 and this year was shifted from the University of Hawaii at Hilo into the state Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism.

Kelso said the state is looking for a site for a new research facility that initially would be home to PISCES and might one day become an "aerospace enterprise zone" based in the Hilo area.

In the meantime, the program plans to rent temporary office space in Hilo, Kelso said.

China To Launch Manned SPACESHIP In June 2013

BEIJING, Nov. 10 (Xinhua) -- China plans to launch another manned spacecraft Shenzhou-10 in early June 2013, a lead space program official said here Saturday.

Like in the Shenzhou-9 mission, the crew might include two men astronauts and a woman, who are scheduled to enter the Tiangong-1 space lab module, Niu Hongguang, deputy commander-in-chief of China's manned space program, said on the sidelines of the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China.

"They will stay in space for 15 days, operating both automated and manual space dockings with the target orbiter Tiangong-1, conducting scientific experiments in the lab module and giving science lectures to spectators on the Earth," he said.

In the coming mission, Shenzhou-10 will offer ferrying services of personnel and supplies for Tiangong-1, further testing the astronauts' abilities of working and living in space, as well as the functions of the lab module, he said.

"The success of this mission might enable China to construct a space lab and a space station," he said.

Tiangong-1 was sent into space in September 2011. It docked with the Shenzhou-8 unmanned spacecraft last November and the manned Shenzhou-9 in June this year, verifying China's space docking capabilities.

Shenzhou-9 carried the first Chinese woman Liu Yang, together with two male crew mates, into outer space.

"After more than a year of operation in space, Tiangong-1 is still in good condition," Niu said.

"Tiangong-1, with a design life of two years, will likely remain in orbit for further operation after the space docking with Shenzhou-10," he said.

The launch rocket and spaceship have been assembled and are being tested, and astronauts are being trained, Niu said.

"The selection for the crew will begin in early 2013," he said.

China initiated the manned space program in 1992. It successfully sent Yang Liwei, the country's first astronaut, into orbit on Shenzhou-5 spacecraft in 2003.

Yang was followed by a two-man mission that carried Fei Junlong and Nie Haisheng in 2005.

The trio of Shenzhou-7 astronauts Zhai Zhigang, Liu Boming and Jing Haipeng orbited the Earth for three days in 2008, and Zhai became the first Chinese to conduct extra-vehicular activities on Sept. 27, 2008.

China plans to build its own space station in around 2020.

"The space station is a state-level space experimental platform. We will make the best use of it to solve some problems concerning the country's scientific, technological development and people's livelihoods," Niu said.

U.K. Says The Space Program Is A Good Investment (PAY ATTENTION AMERICA)

It’s been a really good week for space programs across the world.

We’re hearing rumbling that NASA is plotting a new manned outpost on the moon (as well as launching a new water-seeking rover), and now the U.K. government has decided to increase its funding to the European Space Agency (ESA).

Government officials are currently spending about £170 million (about $270 million) on funding to the agency but will now increase that amount by another £60 million (about $95 million). Officials cite the space program’s impressive financial returns, as well as the program’s potential to boost job growth, as justification for the fresh funding. The funding also comes despite a five percent reduction in overall civil research spending since 2010.

“We have underestimated the strength of our space industry. In fact, we are a global player in satellite and telecommunications technology,” Chancellor George Osborne told BBC News. “This additional investment is a signal to ESA and commercial companies that we are going to continue to support space science and technology.”

Hear that, America? Spending money on the space program is a good investment — and one that world-renowned astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson would most definitely agree with. Tyson made an impassioned speech to Congress earlier this year, urging it to double NASA’s funding from a half-cent on every dollar to a full cent.

As for the British space effort, I think it would (probably) gain another big funding increase if it officially labeled the program the Ministry of Space, as cited in the fictional graphic novel written by Warren Ellis. (It just sounds cooler.)