| Garibjanata |
Posted
on 07-Jan-03 05:01 PM
WASHINGTON D.C. - At a recent visit to the NASA facilities in
Cape Canaveral, Florida, President Bush expressed hope U.S.
astronauts would be able to land a man safely on the sun within 10
years.
One of our earlier Presidents set the goal of landing a man on the
moon and that certainly sounded remarkable at the time. I see no
reason why we couldnt eventually get a man to walk on the sun
without injury," Bush said.
John F. Kennedy was just one year in his office when he challenged
NASA to put a man on the moon by the end of the decade. In the
summer of 1969, Neil Armstrong made that journey, setting the stage
for future space exploration and dozens of botched missions costing
American taxpayers billions of dollars.
President Bush urged NASA engineers and geologists to begin
mapping the suns surface for signs of oil, telling them what an
incredible source of energy the sun could be and how America could
lead the rest of the world in harnessing this great power. "There's
oil
in them hills," Bush joked to some polite laughter.
The President argued the journey should also include important
research that might shed light on why the sun becomes hotter during
the summertime and why it continually circles our planet.
"The only way to unlock the sun's mysteries is to have our astronauts
do a lunar landing on its surface," said Bush. "Then, they can collect
all of the astrological information we need. With this information we
might one day find a way to cool off the sun and put an end to global
warming."
The President hopes that NASA will be able to successfully complete
the mission during his administration, but acknowledges he is also
setting the stage for future Presidents in case they can't build "a
super fire-proof spacesuit" by the end of his term.
"I envision a day, where we will no longer risk blindness by staring
into the sun," Bush said. "Where, during a particularly hot summer, we
might be able to turn a knob like on the thermostat which would draw
a gigantic shade and give us all temporary relief. I realize this
sounds
like science fiction, but thats what we said when we first started
watching Star Trek."
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