Some say that NASA is too bureaucratic and too afraid to take risks. I am one to agree somewhat although will not fully embrace the concept without a few caveats. Nevertheless the problem remains, that if your wait until everything is perfect you will never do anything. Thus sometimes in life or in the exploration of the new discoveries you must take risks. We need to put together missions with acceptable risks and the astronauts assigned need to sign off on those risks for the betterment of all mankind and the future discoveries they will most likely find.

Too difficult to handle; too much for your psyche? Consider the alternative, spending billions getting ready, never going and then having the problem of lost support from the taxpayer here on Earth. If we do not take reasonable and calculatable risks in the future of space exploration we will not reach our goals, even the weakest ones; such as putting a space colony on Mars by 2030. Folks that is just not good enough. We need to do this now in the next few years and stop acting like a bunch of chickens on Earth with the latest strain of Bird Flu.

What if we simply told all astronauts that you might have to be sacrificed or left on your own if something goes wrong and ask them if they are willing to accept the risk? Too much reality for you; can't handle it personally? Maybe not but that does not mean the astronauts can't and remember when we send our boys into the battlespace, that is exactly the risk they take for the service to our nation. We merely ask the astronauts to do the same and take a few more risks at NASA, that is all I am saying really. Think on this in 2006.