Day: January 9, 2004

How about a manned mission to the sun
It could land at night

Easterbrook is trying to figure out “what possible reason–other than science illiteracy at the White House–there could be for George W. Bush to announce a plan to build a Moon base. Manned exploration of Mars is even crazier.”

One parting thought on the practicality of Mars. Spirit, the rover that just landed there, weighs half a ton. Spirit cost $410 million to build and place on Mars–and it’s about the size of a refrigerator, and does not come back. Mars-mission proponents want to send something to the Red Planet the size of an office building, and bring it back.

What NASA needs right now is not an absurd, bank-breaking grand mission: It needs to spend a decade researching a safer lower-cost alternative to the space shuttle.

And why might George W. Bush endorse a Moon base or Mars mission? Either he’s a science illiterate surrounded by advisors who are science illiterates, or it’s a blank check for aerospace contractors.

Richard Nixon…

was born in Yorba Linda, California, on this date in 1913.

NewMexiKen was contacted by the staff working with Richard Nixon on his memoirs, RN, many years ago. I was asked to see if I could determine from among the Nixon papers in my custody the time of day he was born. As I remember it, my research was inconclusive. Someone else’s must have been helpful.

The memoirs begin:

I was born in a house my father built. My birth on the night of January 9, 1913, coincided with a record-breaking cold snap in our town of Yorba Linda, California.