CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. – Hoping to reinvigorate America’s space program following the Columbia (search) tragedy, President Bush will reportedly announce plans next week to build a permanent space station on the moon that could serve as a base for sending astronauts to Mars.
This is a very bad idea (the moon base part). Someone should slip the President a copy of The Case for Mars for his bedside reading pleasure. There are all kinds of technical reasons why using the moon (or for that matter, a space station in Earth orbit) for a base to get to Mars is not viable.