alternatehistory.com

In 1989, George H. W. Bush proposed a long-term Space Exploration Initiative. In response, NASA came up with the 90-day report, a 20-30 year project to build a space station, build a moon base, and then spend a few days on mars. The cost estimate was calculated by congress as circa $500,000,000,000 ($500 BILLION):eek:.
A competing plan was Mars Direct, outlined in 1990 by Robert Zubrin and David Baker, which wanted a 10 year, $20 Billion dollar program whose goal was to bypass the Space Station, bypass the Moon, and stay on Mars for 180 day periods on the surface. However, NASA refused it. What if all the bureaucrats grew brains and a desire to actually explore Space? Would we have reached Mars by '99?
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