Am I wrong to be excited about the Apollo plan?

[slor]

Is it too little, too late? Can we get the info out to the people in time? Why have the candidates not embraced this plan and announced all of the benefits! Hell, it can even appeal to the Only American First crowd. Our candidates should be talking about this at all of the debates and public appearances instead of bashing each other. All of the jobs it can create AND good for the environment! They can say instead of sending jobs abroad we should be be building the technology that will be necessary to create the renewable energy economy to SELL abroad! The Penatgon's own report makes this case regarding the climatic disaters we face. Any thoughts?

[Webster Green]

1. Appolo plan? Whats that?

?????

[Kitsune]

2. wheee, I'm stupid, n/m *nt*

lalalala

[charlie]

3. Link

http://www.apolloalliance.org/

[Webster Green]

8. Thanks for the link!

n/t

[Taeger]

10. Oh that ...

Yes. Though, I think it has a shitty name. People are likely to get it confused with Bush's "Moon vs Mars" initiative.

The suspicious could conjecture that Bush's proposal was a deliberate way to "muddy the waters" so people wouldn't know what "Apollo Alliance" is.


We should start building windfalls and solar fields. Pure and simple. We should create laws that REQUIRE companies to accept home grid inter-tie systems. They should REQUIRE that consumers can sell home power generation back to their power company at the SAME rates that the electric company is BILLING them (minus a % surcharge for billing, say 1%). Millions of Americans could become power producers.

Yeah, solar is "unreliable". But I'd like to point out that PEAK electricity usage is when everybody is using their air conditioner. Guess what, solar power is at IT's PEAK when your air conditioner is ON!!!! Imagine how much CO2 we could keep out of the air by installing home grid inter-tie systems.

We should build wind farms off the coasts and in Lake Michigan. We should build solar farms in the desert (which would also provide protected habitat for our little lizard friends ;-) ).

We should create technology for banking unused renewable energy into hydrogen and then reconverting it at peak times (wind farms). We should invest HEAVILY in fuel cell technologies that could replace gasoline engines and batteries in small devices (lawn mowers, motorcycles, cell phones, bass-boats, PDAs, Laptops ;-) )

We should raise the CAFE standards. Our cars use WAY too much fuel. ALL passenger vehicles should get over 30 mpg on the highway.



We should subsidize "clean" technology through tax breaks. Super high efficient vehicles (50mpg +) should be exempt from state sales taxes. This would apply to gas/electric hybrids and certain VWs with deisel engines. Rechargeable Batteries (besides Ni-Cad) should be tax exempt since they keep disposable cells OUT of landfills.

Speaking of garbage, we should tax it. Nobody wants a landfill in their back yard. Tax every pound of garbage and charge the "disposer" directly. That will encourage recycling.

Speaking of recycling ... We should subsidize it. AND TAX goods that COULD be recycled but aren't. This is just good plain sense. Recycling is EXPENSIVE because we taxpayers SUBSIDIZE the harvesting of raw natural resources. If the situation was REVERSED, recycling would be plenty (as it was during WWII). Jobs WOULD NOT be lost. Rather they would switch from mining and logging to re-cycling industries.

We should subsidize MASS TRANSIT heavily. Currently, we subsidize automotive use by building free roads. Toll roads don't have traffic jams. There is a REASON for this. We should subsidize regional transit that mirror major interstate traffic routes. The purpose would be to RELIEVE traffic. The opposite is expanding interstates. That only leads to EVEN MORE traffic on those roads.

CONTROVERSIAL PART:
We should invest in technology for converting transferring nuclear waste into solid, inert mediums that can be disposed of SAFELY. We should invest in technology for reprocessing spent fuel rods into NEW fuel rods that can be used again.


We cannot escape the reality of peak oil. Rather than INVADING foreign nations. At the same time, we cannot escape the use of fossil fuels. The logical course is USING LESS energy and developing supplementary forms of energy that further reduce our rates of consumption. In this way, we can become energy independent.

[Taeger]

4. If you mean ...

If you mean another "shoot the moon" project, then I'd say you're just misguided. Certainly manned space travel is exciting and inspires the mind. However, it's too expensive and returns NOTHING to the population.

Forget all that "derivative technology" shit. If you want technology, just invest in it directly. The only tangible product that the space program EVER delivered was TANG. And I'm pretty certain that the breakfast drink could have been developed without $300 million in space money.

There are plenty of things our government could invest in that would create MORE jobs and provide tangible lasting benefits for our citizens. Manned space flight is politics, pure and simple. It isn't science.

Space flight should be left to dedicated, life long professionals ... ROBOTS!!!!!!

[DoYouEverWonder]

5. Read the plan, it has nothing to do with space

It is an excellent plan to make the US the leaders in developing alternative energy alternatives and ending our dependence on foreign oil. It is exactly the direction that I want my country to go in.

BTW: At least, four of the candidates including Wesley Clark have endoresed this plan.

[Forkboy]

9. Speaking of misguided

Just a few technology spinoffs.Just slightly more important than TANG.

A miniaturized ventricular-assist pump has been successfully implanted into several people. Initially called the NASA/DeBakey heart pump, it's based in part on technology used in space shuttle fuel pumps.

Fire Fighters wear suits made from fire resistant fabric originally used in space suits.

Medical Imaging-NASA developed ways to process signals from spacecraft to produce clearer images.This technology also makes possible photo-like images of our insides.

Smoke detectors,first used in Skylab (launched in 1973,and used to detect toxic fumes).

A computer program developed by NASA to analyze a spacecraft or airplane design and predict how parts will perform is now used to help design automobiles. This kind of software can save car makers a lot of money by letting them see how well a design will work even before they build a prototype.


I could go on and on,but I think you get the point.

[Taeger]

12. All of those things

All of those things could have been developed WITHOUT NASA for far less money.

[FlaGranny]

13. Serendipity

Those things may have been developed at some time in the future or possibly not. They were developed for a specific purpose and then discovered to have other benefits. Sort of like aspirin - we took it for hundreds of years in one form or another and then someone discovered it helped prevent heart attacks. No one ever thought of aspirin as a heart attack preventer first. In other words, no one would have discovered aspirin's usefulness had it not been first used for something totally different and it's benefits observed.

[Forkboy]

14. Just pointing out that this statement is very wrong

However, it's too expensive and returns NOTHING to the population.

Quite obviously it HAS returned something to the population.

[spanone]

6. bush* interest in space is stategic. war reasons.

[HFishbine]

7. Gephardt was all for it

Maybe he'll put a bug in Kerry's ear.

[many a good man]

11. You are completely right! Most important issue of all

Military spending, war, climate change, high energy prices...they are all going to increase in the years and decades to come. This is the most important idea out there. We MUST proactively address the looming energy problem with the greatest urgency and resources we can muster (it should have started thirty years ago!). Many benefits will accrue (jobs, new technologies) while chase this goal of replacing oil.

[Jose Diablo]

15. Yep, peak oil is a real show stopper

THE issue of the 21st century is peak oil. We may not like it, but it is not going away.

There are many things that can be done that will solve the problem, but fighting a continuing war to obtain a ever dwindling supply of oil is not a solution. That solution is like burying our heads in the sand.

[Jose Diablo]

16. And another thought

The primary ingredients in making photovoltiac power panel are silicon, selenium, copper and germanium.

Germanium can be found at about 500ppm in some coal. The USA has this.

Selenium is found/produced as a byproduct of copper ore. I think the USA still has extensive copper production in the western states.

Silicon is well, sand.

It looks like we have what we need except a lot of more production facilities to made the panels. As production ramps higher and higher, efficiencies should go up, thus unit costs should go down.

Hey, it would be jobs. A lot of jobs. You Generation X'ers feel up to the task? Hmmm?

Think of it as a combination of making the Hoover Dam and the Golden Gate Bridge.