President George W. Bush announced a plan to land Americans on the moon by 2020 on Jan. 14, and while this year's election may affect that proposal, AU physics professor Richard Berendzen, whose areas of expertise include astronomy and NASA, has no doubt that travel to Mars and the moon will become reality relatively soon.
Bush's plan calls for $200 million planning per year to be added to NASA's budget over the next five years, as well as retiring three space shuttles by 2010 to add more money to the agency's research and development fund.
This follows President George H.W. Bush's 1989 proposal for the United States to return to the moon 50 years after astronaut Neil Armstrong took the first step on the moon in 1969.
"After five years of planning, if you calculate right, Bush will leave if re-elected," Berendzen said. "What happens then is up in the air."
"Watch the world and pay attention because [what will come] has the potential to go way beyond any science-fiction film," Berendzen said. "I assure you, within the lifespan of AU students, humans will be on Mars and the moon. I am convinced the first human to step foot on Mars is already born - an American either in college or high school."
If this plan comes to life, Berendzen predicts that people will eventually benefit from having more knowledge about what is in space.
For example, he said the United States could become independent of oil from the Middle East by collecting energy from the sun in gigantic "solar collectors." These facilities would convert the sun's rays into a form that could be beamed down to enormous isolated "farms" on Earth, and then be turned into electricity.
Travel to the moon could also allow people to collect helium deposited on the moon's surface in a fine stream of particles known as the "solar wind," making the helium different than the gas found on Earth, Berendzen said. This helium could be used for energy by using nuclear fusion, which essentially pushes atoms together to make energy.
"No one has done it - it would require a form of nuclear fusion we haven't developed," Berendzen said. "But who would've believed we would have cell phones with cameras?"
These plans could happen within 15 years. Countries such as Japan, Russia and Britain would help develop plans and share costs.
Eventual settlement on the moon could be relatively easy, he said.
"Suppose the first pilgrims had supplies dropped in Colorado by rockets," Berendzen said. "Now they just have to get to Colorado. Things will be waiting to set up: in fact, robots would do most of the setting up shop. When the colonists arrived, everything would be in place."
If people ended up living on the moon, they would have to be protected from the radiation in space without the benefit of the layers of gas that protect people on Earth. Also, people on the moon would have to exercise more than on Earth because the low gravity on the moon would put a lot of stress on the heart and bones.
Berendzen predicts that any water on the moon would be used quickly and hydrogen would be used for fuel.
"We would live off the land, self-sustainable," he said.
