In its ongoing efforts to shore up a sinking ship, the Bush Administration is planning on announcing a new goal to send astronauts to the moon, and is likely to announce this on Dec. 17th the 100 year commemoration date for the Wrights brothers first flight. While this would be fantastic, it seems that the spirit of the mission is not exactly an uplifting one. In Mike Allen and Kathy Sawyer's report, "Bush Team Searches for a Big Idea"
http://www.msnbc.com/news/1001498.asp:
An interagency group led by the White House, for instance, has been working since August on a blueprint for interplanetary human flight over the next 20 to 30 years to give NASA a new mission after the Feb. 1 disintegration of the space shuttle Columbia. Plans call for Bush to issue an ambitious new national vision for space travel by early next year, and officials said the initiative is likely to involve cooperation between NASA and the military.
There has been a lot of significant discussion among organizations that advocate space travel saying it is very feasible for private interests under strict government regulation would be better of going to the moon. If any government effort is launched it should be to take mankind to Mars. http://www.space-frontier.org/MEDIA_ROOM/NEWSREL/2002/20021017moonmars.html . While its hard to criticize the president for something he has yet to announce I can say that the warning signs don't look good. The NASA-military connection doesn't sound to great. It sounds like another cold war campaign to me, only this time replacing the Soviet Union with China, who is making their own push for manned space exploration. Combine this with all the new star wars hype, and we're looking at a new effort to militarize space.