Vision for Space Exploration

[2][3] Outlining some of the advantages, U.S. president George W. Bush addressed the following:[3] Establishing an extended human presence on the moon could vastly reduce the costs of further space exploration, making possible ever more ambitious missions.

We can use our time on the moon to develop and test new approaches and technologies and systems that will allow us to function in other, more challenging environments.One of the stated goals for the Constellation program is to gain significant experience in operating away from Earth's environment,[4] as the White House contended, to embody a "sustainable course of long-term exploration.

Unique products may be producible in the nearly extreme vacuum of the lunar surface, and the Moon's remoteness is the ultimate isolation for biologically hazardous experiments.

However, in November 2004, Congress passed a spending bill which gave NASA the $16.2 billion that President Bush had sought to kick-start the vision.

[18] In February 2009, the Aerospace Technology Working Group released an in-depth report asserting that the vision had several fundamental problems with regard to politics, financing, and general space policy issues and that the initiative should be rectified or replaced.

[20] However, VSE itself is poised to propel a host of beneficial Moon science activities, including lunar telescopes, selenological studies and solar energy beams.

However, without VSE, more funds could be directed toward reducing human spaceflight costs sufficiently for the betterment of low Earth orbit research, business, and tourism.

[20] Alternatively, VSE could afford advances in other scientific research (astronomy, selenology), in-situ lunar business industries, and lunar-space tourism.

Ultimately, the lack of proper funding caused the VSE to fall short of its original goals, leaving many projects behind schedule as President George W. Bush's term in office ended.

Keith Cowan wrote in 2014, "The damage done to America and the rest of the world by unsustainable deficits is real, and any lack of zeal in facing this problem would be a mistake.

President George W. Bush voiced this sentiment when the vision was first announced (see quote above), and the United States Senate has re-entered testimony[Tumlinson 1] by Space Frontier Foundation founder Rick Tumlinson offered previously to the United States Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation advocating this particular perspective.