Which Way, L.A.?

President Bush, Space Exploration and 'the Vision Thing'

America fulfilled John F. Kennedy-s challenge of reaching the Moon, but subsequent space explorations promoted by other presidents were either abandoned or turned out to be more expensive and dangerous than they were worth. The first President Bush's plan to go from the Moon to Mars by 2019 was killed when the likely cost rose to hundreds of billions of dollars. Now, as his re-election campaign gets underway, his son has revived the idea with a much longer time table and no less ultimate cost. If a trip to Mars is decades into the future and a trip to the Moon is old news, are there other unifying and energizing national goals that could be achieved sooner-at less expense? We solicit ideas from the director of UCLA's Program on Medicine, Technology and Society, the associated editor of Wired magazine and the president of the new Hydrogen Car Company Making News: Statewide Survey Finds Public Dislikes Proposition 57 Arnold Schwarzenegger says that his $15 billion bond proposal on the March 2 ballot is critical to California-s financial recovery. Mark Baldassare, director of surveys for the Public Policy Institute of California, says that while voters still think well of the Governor, their opinion of the ballot measure is another thing altogether.