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oneway[f84,jmc]		A one way mission to the moon (re: omni, shackleton)

	At a meeting on NASA's future plans held in 1979 or 1980, the
Administrator of NASA was asked about plans for a return to the moon.
His reply was that there was no way the U.S. could return to the moon
in this century.  The questioner pressed him, ``Do you mean that Congress
wouldn't put up the money?''

- ``No, not even if Congress put up the money''.

- ``Do mean the U.S. can't do in twenty years what we did in ten years
previously?''

- ``It's not the same country''.

*****


	This article contains proposals for less expensive manned
space exploration and a new source of funds for it.

	Space exploration, especially manned exploration, has gone
much more slowly than we space enthusiasts would have liked.  We
believe that man will occupy the solar system and then go to others
--- maybe even occupying the galaxy --- and we would like to see
as much of a start as possible in our own lifetimes.  While
most of us have this as a basic goal, not just as a means to
some other goal, there are some advantages we can point out
to people who don't care about space for its own sake.  For
example, the likelihood of humanity being wiped out by war
would be much reduced if humanity were more dispersed.

	The reason why progress has been so slow is that
space exploration is technologically difficult and has been
extremely expensive.  Moreover, manned exploration has been
the prerogative of just the United States and the Soviet
Union --- Europe and Japan have scarcely been involved.
Moreover, American space exploration was badly affected
by the dismal anti-technological attitudes of the 1960s
and 1970s.

	Now that the Shuttle is finally working, and the
attitude of Congress, the public and even the intellectuals
has improved, it is time to think of new initiatives.

	NASA has developed an extremely ponderous and expensive
style of space exploration.  We propose a manned project with
the following characteristics.

	#. Its astronauts accept hardships and risks like those
of 19th century explorers or present day mountain climbers rather
than the using the environment of military test pilots, who
run risks but count on returning promptly to their families.
This is not to criticize present astronauts, some of whom may
prefer our proposals.

	#. The funding is through public donation, and foreign
participation is encouraged.  We believe that amounts of money
in the range $500 million to $1 billion can be raised.  This
is the range of a fund drive by the top U.S. universities.  That's
not generous by NASA standards, so extreme economy is necessary.

	#.