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Well, that’s it, then. Bush
to shoot for Moon, then Mars. You know, I had a story all worked
up about Mars, but in the last 12 months Mars has become totally
pedestrian. (Maybe I can write a story about the Global Oceanic Conveyor
instead.)

Despite merely being a cheap campaign-boosting ploy, it’s a
familiar ploy; Bush père said something very
similar:

In 1989 on the 20th anniversary of the first manned moon landing, his
father, the first President Bush, called for lunar colonies and a Mars
expedition: “I’m not proposing a 10-year plan like Apollo; I’m proposing
a long-range, continuing commitment. … For the new century: Back to
the moon; back to the future. And this time, back to stay. And then a
journey into tomorrow, a journey to another planet: a manned mission to
Mars.”

The prohibitively expensive plan went nowhere.