PRESIDENT George W. Bush’s proposal to send astronauts to the moon and Mars has been strongly criticised by the American Physical Society.
In a report released on 22 November, the APS warns that “the rapid pace currently envisioned for this programme may require a wide redistribution of the science and technology budgets”, delaying or even displacing other crucial projects.
The report points out that some high-priority NASA projects have already been postponed to accommodate Bush’s poorly defined initiative. For instance, LISA, a planned gravity wave detector in solar orbit, has fallen behind by at least a year, while Constellation-X, a…
