From: Mary Shafer <shafer@rigel.dfrc.nasa.gov>
Newsgroups: sci.space.history,sci.space.policy,sci.space.shuttle,
	sci.space.station
Subject: Re: Returning to the Moon
Date: 22 Jul 1999 14:49:38 -0700

"ralph buttigieg" <ralphb@zip.com.au> writes:

> There you go mate. Let the GSA provide NASA's moonbase.

GSA is an administrative agency.  They rent buildings, arrange
contracts for telephone service, supply government cars though fleet
purchases, negotiate government-wide discounts for computers, and so
on.  About once a year there's a story about how GSA over-speced or
under-priced or dawdled on contracts to the point that no one was
happy with what they obtained.  It is the bureaucracy's bureaucracy.

However, if they do provide the moonbase, it will be a non-smoking
facility; the most revolutionary thing GSA ever did was to ban smoking
from federal buildings that they owned or leased well before such a
move became general (although most Federal agencies followed their
lead fairly quickly).  It will also be carpeted, because GSA has
determined that carpet is cheaper to maintain than are hard surfaces
and will no longer allow any other floor covering in facilities under
their control.

--
Mary Shafer    http://www.dfrc.nasa.gov/People/Shafer/mary.html
shafer@rigel.dfrc.nasa.gov     Of course I don't speak for NASA
Lead Handling Qualities Engineer, SR-71/LASRE
NASA Dryden Flight Research Center, Edwards, CA
For non-aerospace mail, use shafer@ursa-major.spdcc.com please