IF YOU want to know whether President George W. Bush’s plans for space exploration will succeed, try tossing a coin. Two previous US presidents outlined a broad vision of what they believed should be done to conquer space. One famously succeeded, the other did not.
President Kennedy’s historic speech in 1962 led to the Apollo missions that landed 12 men on the moon. But Bush’s father’s attempt in 1989 to go one better and put people on Mars soon collapsed for lack of political support, as the price tag escalated to $500 billion.
As Â鶹´«Ã½ went to press, some…
