Project Orion, the Ares, and the future

The successor of Project Apollo, which will return American astronauts to the Moon, will be called Project Orion, and the rocket which will send American astronauts back to the Moon and then onward to Mars will be called the Ares.

This Project Orion should not be confused with the 1960's plan by the same name to develop a nuclear spaceship.

This is about more than beating the Chinese back to the Moon. This is about more than the supply of helium 3 on the Moon, which could potentially solve our energy problems for the foreseeable future. This is about renewing the benefits to our economy we enjoyed from Project Apollo- about stimulating our economy, employing more people, making the kind of huge leaps in every area of science which nearly always happen on the way to somewhere else- and, of course, facing up to the reality of our destiny in space.

What it is, above all, is about time.

HT: MarsBlog