U.S. to Establish Space Base on the Moon by 2020

On January 14, the U.S. president, George W. Bush, addressed his aspiration to the universe for NASA to establish a permanent space base on the moon where astronauts can stay over by 2020 at the latest in order to dispatch a manned exploration spaceship to Mars by 2030, grounding on the moon base.

On the press conference held at NASA headquarters in Washington, Bush disclosed that “If we allow the astronauts to stay on the Moon for a long period, we can reduce the expenditures for space exploration by a lot and carry on to more ambitious operations in space.”

He has asked Congress to produce a relevant budget amount of a billion dollars over the next five years, and declared that he would allocate one-seventh of the total budget apportioned to NASA, $86 billion dollars, to the space exploration field.

“We will develop an epochal-manned exploration vehicle that can substitute for the existing space shuttles and deliver the astronauts directly to the space terminals and the moon,” Bush added. According to this, it seems that the United States will step out of the international space terminal establishment operations in which 15 countries are jointly taking part, and go with its independent plan for space development in earnest.

Although the space plan disclosed by President Bush is the most epochal address since the plan dreamt up by the former president, John F. Kennedy, hardships are expected on the way towards the plan, as astronomical expenses are required and adverse criticism which asserts his statement to be for presidential campaign use has been stirred up.

maypole@donga.com