Florida Today one ups the Soviet planners by an order of magnitude–they have a fifty-year plan for conquering the solar system.

The plan is not unlike those formulated by several blue-ribbon panels formed over the years to try to give NASA a vision.

No kidding. And for that reason, it will fail as all the others have.

This is absurd. We can’t imagine what kind of technologies will be available to us in fifty years, and what kind of societal changes will have occurred, and to attempt to lay out such a plan is futile. It’s the typical space cadet fantasy–give our national space agency a bold objective to send some government employees somewhere to “explore,” add money, and hope for the best.

No mention of the promise of the private sector. No talk of developing or industrializing space. No mention of space for the rest of us.

They’re stuck in the sixties, hoping that Bush will be another version of their idealized (and false) notion of a Jack Kennedy.

Hey guys, come up with a plan unlike those of the past blue-ribbon commissions, then get back to me.

[Update on Monday evening]

Clark Lindsey isn’t impressed, either.