Mark Alpert

Fly Me to the Moon

When U.S. President George W. Bush declared in January that NASA would set its sights on returning astronauts to the moon by 2020, scientists quickly lined up on opposing sides. Although Bushs plan promises more funding for researchers studying the moon and Mars, other branches of space science are already feeling the pinch. Just two days after the president presented his initiative, NASA announced that it would cancel a shuttle flight to install new gyroscopes, batteries and scientific instruments to the Hubble space telescope. During the phase out, targeted for 2010, much of the shuttles

Physician, heal thyself.

4-billion annual budget will be shifted toward designing a crew exploration vehicle that could take astronauts to the moon. The moon mission, though, is more likely to be focused on applications that will aid human spaceflight-such as finding ice and learning how to extract it for life support or to produce rocket fuel by breaking the water into liquid hydrogen and oxygen. The White Houses plan to send astronauts to the moon is already being incorporated into NASAs proposed budget.