Observers see father in Bush's space plan

By J. Patrick Coolican
Seattle Times staff reporter

E-mail this article Print this article Search archive

President Bush's recent proposal to send a man to Mars is remarkably similar to one pitched in 1989 to fanfare but no effect by his father, the 41st president, said a former astronaut and a NASA engineer yesterday at the Pacific Science Center's Mars exhibit in Seattle.

"It's the old man's," former space-shuttle astronaut George Nelson said, referring to the plan, which would create a permanent space station on the moon before proceeding to the Red Planet.

Nevertheless, Nelson and Brian Muirhead, a chief engineer at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California, said in separate interviews the manned exploration is a dream of theirs and one worth pursuing.

President George H.W. Bush declared his intentions in July 1989, coinciding with the 20th anniversary of the first moon landing: "For the new century, back to the moon, back to the future, and this time back to stay. And then, a journey into tomorrow, a journey to another planet, a manned mission to Mars."

Earlier this month Bush's eldest son offered his own proposal: "We may discover resources on the moon or Mars that will boggle the imagination, that will test our limits to dream."

"We do not know where this journey will end, yet we know this: Human beings are headed into the cosmos," he said.

Nelson, director of science, math and technology education at Western Washington University, said the current plan is much like the 1989 blueprint, "America at the Threshold," which died almost immediately when cost estimates came in at $400 billion in a deficit-rich budget environment.

Of the current plan, Nelson said he's pessimistic. The idea will need to be sold in a bipartisan way, he said.

He advocated more money for universities to swell the ranks of the space program and to give young scientists the chance for NASA funding.

Muirhead, who helped engineer the current unmanned mission to Mars, said he's skeptical but added that he thinks the proposal will give focus to NASA's manned and unmanned programs.

Despite their pessimism and skepticism, both men said they desperately want the president and Congress to follow through.

"The big question is 'Was there life on Mars?' My opinion is, we ought to go look," said Nelson, who added that the trip would probably take four months each way.

He called it a reasonable possibility that there was life on Mars.

Muirhead said he wants to know the answer to a question that has propelled his rocket work all his life: Are we alone in the universe?

"I firmly believe humans are going to leave the planet permanently," he said.

J. Patrick Coolican: 206-464-3315 or jcoolican@seattletimes.com

Information from The Associated Press is used in this report.

Copyright © 2004 The Seattle Times Company