Trump interested in lunar manned mission?
After meeting with Donald Trump a historian now says the president-elect appears very interested in the idea of sending a man to the Moon.
All of these stories continue to be speculation, but I strongly suspect that much of it also consists of trial balloons pushed by the various supporters of SLS/Orion in their effort to give that very expensive and so-far completely unproductive boondoggle a mission it can actually achieve. Right now, SLS/Orion has no mission. It is only funded through the first manned test flight in 2021 (likely to be delayed until 2023). Since it has been a pork barrel favorite of a number of Senators and Congressmen, I would not be surprised if they are trying to convince Trump to fund it by giving it a new Kennedy-like mission.
On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.
The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News
After meeting with Donald Trump a historian now says the president-elect appears very interested in the idea of sending a man to the Moon.
All of these stories continue to be speculation, but I strongly suspect that much of it also consists of trial balloons pushed by the various supporters of SLS/Orion in their effort to give that very expensive and so-far completely unproductive boondoggle a mission it can actually achieve. Right now, SLS/Orion has no mission. It is only funded through the first manned test flight in 2021 (likely to be delayed until 2023). Since it has been a pork barrel favorite of a number of Senators and Congressmen, I would not be surprised if they are trying to convince Trump to fund it by giving it a new Kennedy-like mission.
On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.
The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News
Trump says whatever he thinks the person/group standing in front of him wants him to say. Then he’ll deny he ever said it or didn’t really mean it.
Yes , Hillary
Of course astronauts will walk on the Moon within 8 years, that’s a solid part of making America great again. Mars is off because it cannot be done in 8 years. Trump thinks about these things with a business and foreign policy perspective. He needs the SLS to get going quickly, and most of its costs are sunk anyway. It will fly until there’s a large private launcher available. And he must love foreign policy since it is all about negotiations, and even not restricted by laws which are just national. He will make sure that the US totally dominates space in terms of what is useful for the military and national security. But also a Moon program to boost national self confidence and show off world dominance.
@BSJ No, that’s what all politicians do when they lie to fool the naive idiot victims that believe them. Trump is “cheating” by being right and telling the truth. It is much easier that way than to be wrong and fail and lie about it, so all journalists and all politicians think that it is cheating.
Like President Obama, President Trump can only send a NON BINDING budget PROPOSAL to congress. It will always bottom line be, who’s ox gets gored.
There has been a long standing fight with the executive branch and congress about the commercialization and industrialization of space flight. President Bush gave up the VSE and Constellation program and got commercial cargo. President Obama gave up SLS/Orion and got commercial crew. That is two legs of the stool. The third leg is a commercial destination and what the executive branch is willing to give up in order to get it.
It has been a long road since President Reagan and The Commercial Space Launch Act of 1984 and President Clinton and The Commercial Space Act of 1998 but those two documents have finally brought us to the point of finally commercializing space flight.
Trump says whatever he thinks the person/group standing in front of him wants him to say. Then he’ll deny he ever said it or didn’t really mean it.
And those that are drunk on Trump Kool-Aid have delusional, selective memories.
@BSJ
You’re welcome to give examples of Trump lying. Only thing I see is stupid lying journalists and politicians lying about Trump lying. Losing stupid failing idiots like Obama who never were capable to do even the simplest and most important things in their sorry lives. And below them their hateful defrauded slaves. Primitive apes like you, BSJ, thoughtlessly repeating your failed masters lies. Your wet dream of crooked Clinton taking millions in bribes to mass murder Americans in the name of islam didn’t come true. I’m sorry, but now you have a chance to survive. I know that you hate it as much as you hate your life.
LocalFluff: Actually, I think BSJ’s description of Trump to be reasonably accurate. He will say “whatever he thinks the person/group standing in front of him wants him to say.” He does this to disarm his opposition as part of what he correctly sees as a continuing negotiation.
What I find important, and BSJ ignores, is what Trump eventually does. These facts are not “delusional”, and so far they suggest he is going to run a moderately conservative administration.
So far, Trump has not “done” anything. He has made announcements of nominations for various positions, but it will be who gets approved and what those people “do” once in position that matters. To me, it is all still just words. I am waiting to see what actually happens and what actually is done before I will admit to any conservatism that Trump may (or may not) have during his administration.
I, too, remember Trump as saying a lot of different things to different audiences. Often it was because his natural reaction to questions or situations was liberal-Democrat in nature, and he would apparently be told later, behind the scenes, that he needed to state a more conservative position, so he would make a series of less liberal statements until the conservatives stopped complaining.
He also did a lot of denying that he had stated things, but a lot of other liberal Democrats would do the same, even though Youtube showed them saying it on camera.
I am in “wait and see” mode. Eventually I will be able to say that “I waited and then I saw.”
Edward: You are right of course. I am in the same wait and see mode as you. However, it is not a mistake to look at the people he is actually choosing to be part of his administration and use that as good information as well as an indication of the direction he wishes to go.
I’m with both of you (and I suspect Wayne as well). Mr. Z, I’ve also observed that Trump is all about negotiations; it’s the prism through which he views the world. The best news is that he seems to agree with me on what’s best for our country, but that may be part of him telling us what we want to hear.
I think we’re going to see a very different approach to the job; the Vice President will probably handle a lot more of the day-to-day duties traditionally associated with the President, as the President goes around making deals. I expect some strange and at least occasionally inappropriate actions in making deals, but I’m confident Trump will learn on the job (Cotour, this may be what you mean by “becoming more than he is,” although I wouldn’t put it that way).
Even if things had been handled well in the past 8 years (or 16 years, or 28 years), it would probably be a good thing to have a new approach. The whole world, from Putin, to Israel, to terrorists, to Congress, to crony capitalists, to CEOs, to welfare recipients, to illegal aliens, to hardworking citizens, will be on their toes ready to react to the new approach, and I’m optimistic that the changes will be good overall. I expect many key players to try to please Trump, or at least avoid angering him, which should lead to some good things.
Or Trump could lead us in bad places by either bad intentions, or overzealous actions based on incomplete knowledge and good intentions; it’s too early to tell.
Interesting times indeed. . .
Garry–
yeah-I am in a complete wait and see mode myself.
As Edward notes– Trump hasn’t actually done any governing as of yet.
He has however, chosen a number of hard core establishment types to surround himself–and Rence Priubus is going to be gatekeeper.
Wow Bob, Duplicity as a virtuous tactic. The World has truly turned upside down.
Fluff, I see you’ve transitioned from the Happy drunk stage to the Angry drunk, name calling stage. Whatever Buddy, the hangover will surely come soon enough…
BSJ: What Trump is doing is no different than every negotiator in the history of the world. If you think people didn’t do it in the past you are living in a fantasy world.
The difference is that we once were free, which meant we were responsible for our own actions. You needed to have the wisdom and sophistication to spot such duplicity, or to ignore it if it was irrelevant to what you wanted. It was one of the consequences and risks of freedom.
Trump can get away with more today because so many people are childish and credulous, and assume falsely that the government and the law will protect them from such things.
Edward–
I as well, remember DJT saying all sorts of things, to all sorts of different people. (often watched the nightly re-run of his stump-speeches on C-Span. Don’t care how the media characterizes him–I wanted it straight from his mouth.)
The Carrier news-conference was the complete tipping point for me. It was a glimpse into his actual on the ground mode of operation; he doesn’t believe ANY of his own used car salesman spiel stuff.
To him, it’s all negotiation tactics… and he’s far from a “master” at it.
I would characterize him as a disingenuous liar of the first order.
I didn’t like when Obama did this type of stuff, and DJT is apparently intent on doing the same stuff. Only he’s going to pay off his friends first, above all.
And– none of us, are his friends.
(One thing I’m damn sure of– Rinse Priebus doesn’t have my interest’s at heart, nor does Mitch, his wife, Paul Ryan, Bob Corker, Goldman Sacks, Jared Kushner, or the endless conga line of insider, establishment types, drooling over a trillion dollar borrowing binge.)
The adherents to all mass-movements, are identical & interchangeable, because they believe in nothing, except blind allegiance to power.
@Edwards
So far Donald Trump has saved a thousand jobs for American families in Indianapolis. Merry Christmas to all of them! That which Obama explicitly said was impossible because Trump doesn’t have a magic wand (so he picked up the phone instead and solved this silly simple important little problem which was impossible for the failed president to deal with).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FQniHA7zNp8
And he hasn’t even started yet!
Funny that Sleeping Beauty Obama starts trying to do stuff at the same stuff that Trump does get going. Only that Obama didn’t do anything during 8 long years. He just woke up and tries to restart the cold war. Futile.
You are welcome to give specific examples of Trump lying, or even changing his mind or giving contradictory messages. For sure you could at least link to a compilation of that, I’m curious. I haven’t seen any single example of that. Just MSM lying about him lying, without any kind of substance at all. In a time with competing media, that trick doesn’t work. I t only fools the stupidest of all, and they are luckily still not enough to form a majority.
Trump’s WH nominations proves to me that he really is serious about making big big changes. More profound than you, and even I, yet understand. Not only radical changes in laws and international agreements, but most of all psychological and mass media changes. Institutions like the UN will suddenly disappear. The climate panic fraud will be forgotten. News media will cease to exist as a filtrating middleman between the people and those they have elected. The US government will actually do what is good for the US, like other great poweras do what is good for their countries.
Carrier Press Conference
https://youtu.be/h_44DtCeCWw?t=693
especially at the 12:50 mark.
Off prompter, telling us what he actually thinks about all his “promises.”
“What I find important, and BSJ ignores, is what Trump eventually does. ”
What Trump eventually does is file bankrupcy and screws hundreds of contractors and bankers.
the 3500 civil lawsuits shows that is what he has CONSISTANTLY did.
http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/elections/2016/06/01/donald-trump-lawsuits-legal-battles/84995854/
He also has 170 federal lawsuits for labor violations etc.
http://lawnewz.com/high-profile/we-investigated-donald-trump-is-named-in-at-least-169-federal-lawsuits/
As trump is saying buy america and hire america he does the exact opposite
http://www.newsweek.com/how-donald-trump-ditched-us-steel-workers-china-505717
“Trump’s vineyard is hiring — foreign workers”
http://money.cnn.com/2016/12/22/news/companies/trump-foreign-workers/
LocalFluff wrote: “So far Donald Trump has saved a thousand jobs for American families in Indianapolis.”
Actually, Trump is taking credit for a decision that one company made a year ago based upon negotiation of money from a state government. Everyone accepts that this is all Trump’s doing, but he did nothing in that negotiation or in the decision.
For everyone to celebrate this as a Trump triumph is the equivalent of handing out a Nobel Peace Prize for nothing more than becoming president, which would be an equally ludicrous thing to do, and we can rest assured that the Norwegian Nobel Committee would never do such a stupid thing.
Oh, wait.
LocalFluff wrote: “And he hasn’t even started yet!”
I see that you agree with me, that he had nothing to do with it, because he hasn’t started yet. He has literally done nothing as president or with presidential powers. He has only spouted words, and talk is cheap. Actions speak louder and have much more meaning.
LocalFluff wrote: “Only that Obama didn’t do anything during 8 long years.”
A partial list of what Obama did: Doubled the national debt, fundamentally transformed America into a tyranny, printed half as much money as he borrowed, created a Japanese-style stagnant economy, nationalized two of our three domestic auto companies, took control of American healthcare, dramatically increased terrorist attacks within the country, decreased religious freedoms (a basic foundation of America), used government agencies to silence opposition, increased racial strife to early 1960s levels, started a war on America’s police and police departments, made America’s friends and allies distrust us and move closer to Russia for support, gave permission to Iran to develop a nuclear bomb, turned restrooms into unsafe zones, …
LocalFluff wrote: “You are welcome to give specific examples of Trump lying”
Apparently Google is broken on LocalFluff’s end. First link to come up:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dec_Yt2yns8 (7 minutes)
LocalFluff wrote: “Trump’s WH nominations proves to me that he really is serious about making big big changes. More profound than you, and even I, yet understand.”
This is just what we fear, because this exactly describes Obama in December of 2008. Please reference the above partial list of Obama changes.
Robert wrote: “it is not a mistake to look at the people he is actually choosing to be part of his administration and use that as good information as well as an indication of the direction he wishes to go.”
We thought that Justices Kennedy and Roberts were in favor of liberty, but they each turned out to be pivotal in negating major portions of our liberty, allowing government to usurp several of our natural freedoms. Who knows what evil lurks in the actions of these new people. I will not draw any conclusions based upon the people he chooses.
On the other hand, it could be telling if he were to intend to drain Congress of conservatives through appointments.
I do not trust that Trump has magically transformed his liberal Democrat ways. He is quite old to be suddenly changing his stripes. I know of no liberal Democrat who suddenly changed to a conservative just because he chose to run for office as a Republican. The only ones that I can think of either slowly changed before they ran for office or slowly changed while in office.
Trump uses confidence-man tactics to win his negotiations, gaining the trust of his mark, and then turning on him to win. He negotiated a presidency out of America (whether or not he was there to ensure a Clinton victory), and now he is negotiating whatever he intends to do to us as a liberal Democrat president in Republican clothing.
Robert wrote: “Trump can get away with more today because so many people … [among other things] … assume falsely that the government and the law will protect them from such things.”
And yet this is how we grew up, in America. When we were young, our government-employed teachers taught us that the Supreme Court was there to protect We the People from the tyranny of the other two branches, but it turned out that they were complicit in creating a government tyranny.
When we were younger, the US government was good at providing the only three things that government is supposed to do: Protect us from foreign and domestic enemies, Peacefully resolve disputes by impartial judgement, and Keep out of our way. But now it lets terrorists slip in among refugees and border jumpers, takes sides in political campaigns, and directs us as to how to live — right down to how we are to spend our own money.
Only a few years ago, we understood that elections had consequences, that we could effect change by electing the right people, those who were on the side of liberty. It turned out that even the right people were already corrupted against us and worked contrary to what we put them into office for.
At one time, the assumption was correct, government protected the liberty of We the People, and we could put a lot of trust in them to continue to do so. Now, however, they act like there is no such thing as a Constitution — as though it were a document of negative liberties.
If they are just going to ignore the new Amendments anyway, it does not matter whether we change the Constitution with a Convention of States. To regain our freedoms, we need more that a Convention of States; we need a government or a military that assures that the Constitution is upheld and obeyed, not a greedy, tyrannical government.
Welcome to Obama’s America, home of the formerly free.
Edward wrote:
“….A partial list of what Obama did: Doubled the national debt, fundamentally transformed America into a tyranny, printed half as much money as he borrowed, created a Japanese-style stagnant economy, nationalized two of our three domestic auto companies, took control of American healthcare, dramatically increased terrorist attacks within the country, decreased religious freedoms (a basic foundation of America), used government agencies to silence opposition, increased racial strife to early 1960s levels, started a war on America’s police and police departments, made America’s friends and allies distrust us and move closer to Russia for support, gave permission to Iran to develop a nuclear bomb, turned restrooms into unsafe zones, ……”
I like this, a nice concise list of the “greatest hits”, I may have to steal this. :-)
As far as Trump goes, I agree that his past would indicate he is not a small government conservative, but as Mr Z pointed out, his appointments so far are mostly encouraging.
I say give him the next 2 years, if he fails to follow through on his stated goals, or worse, reveals himself to be the progressive he used to be, then we can start working to replace him.
Steve Earle wrote: “I like this, a nice concise list of the “greatest hits”, I may have to steal this. :-)”
Please do, and add to it what you can think of, too. That was just off the top of my head, and it was fairly high-level in order to not get bogged down in the small stuff that was done, sometimes done to modify the failing big stuff.
Steve Earle wrote: “if he fails to follow through on his stated goals, or worse, reveals himself to be the progressive he used to be, then we can start working to replace him.”
He has so many contradictory stated goals and goals that are horrendous for America that I think we should have been working to replace him from before he locked in the primary. Even many of his supporters have said that he is merely a stop-gap to prevent Clinton from doing even worse to the country than Trump has said he wants to do to it.