ADVISORY/Experts Available to Discuss President Bush's Request for $1B for Space Exploration Program.

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ADVISORY...

--(BUSINESS WIRE)

TOPIC: President Bush has requested that NASA receive $1 billion over the next five years in order to expand human space exploration, according to an article by The Associated Press. The plan includes a research base to be established on the moon within 20 years and a manned landing on Mars shortly after 2030. Adjustments in NASA's budget would partially fund the program. For example, the plan suggests the space shuttle, which costs NASA an estimated $4 billion per year, be retired by the end of this decade.

EXPERTS: ExpertSource can offer several highly qualified experts to comment on this story:

James W. Benson founded SpaceDev in 1997 with the vision to enable humanity to explore, develop and settle space. Benson is also a director, a position he has held since October 1997. Benson brings 30 years of successful, hands-on, high-tech entrepreneurial and management experience to SpaceDev. Prior to founding SpaceDev, Benson was founder and president of Compusearch Software Systems and ImageFast, both of McLean, Virginia. Benson decided to take on the challenge of starting an entrepreneurial space commercialization venture because it combined his lifelong interests in science, technology and astronomy with his successful business experience. Benson has broad experience working with global resource issues and economics, energy policy, advanced technology assessment and governmental policy. Benson holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Geology from the University of Missouri. He founded the non-profit Space Development Institute and introduced the $5,000 Benson Prize for Amateur Discovery of Near Earth Objects. He is also Vice-Chairman and private sector representative on NASA's national Space Grant Review Panel and a member of the American Society of Civil Engineers subcommittee on Near Earth Object Impact Prevention and Mitigation.

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Professor Peter Bock, of George Washington University, Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, was a member of the research faculty at IIT Research Institute (IITRI) in Chicago, where he developed high-speed computer simulations for the analysis of the NASA Apollo Earth and Lunar orbital remote-sensing missions. Since 1970 he has been a full-time member of the Electrical Engineering and Computer Science faculty at The George Washington University, where he pioneered the development of collective learning systems theory, an adaptive learning paradigm for artificial intelligence.

202-296-9659

Professor Edgar Choueiri, of Princeton University, Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Department, has conducted theoretical, numerical and experimental research in astronautical and aerospace engineering, spacecraft propulsion, advanced electric and plasma propulsion and thrusters for spacecraft, orbital mechanics and space travel, space mission analysis and micropropulsion.

609-258-5220

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