Editing Mars Direct (section)

===Space Exploration Initiative===

On July 20, 1989, US President [[George H. W. Bush]] announced plans for what came to be known as the [[Space Exploration Initiative]] (SEI). In a speech on the steps of the [[National Air and Space Museum]] he described long-term plans which would culminate in a human mission to the surface of Mars.<ref>{{cite web |title= Remarks on the 20th Anniversary of the Apollo 11 Moon Landing |url= http://bushlibrary.tamu.edu/research/public_papers.php?id=712&year=1989&month=all |year= 2012 |access-date= September 1, 2012}}</ref>

By December 1990, a study to estimate the project's cost determined that long-term expenditure would total approximately 450 billion dollars spread over 20 to 30 years.<ref>{{cite web |title= 90 Day Review: The 90 day review of President H.W. Bush's SEI plan |url= https://history.nasa.gov/90_day_study.pdf |date= October 19, 2010 |access-date= September 1, 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20041028173153/https://history.nasa.gov/90_day_study.pdf |archive-date=October 28, 2004 |last1= Cohen |first1= Aaron }}</ref> The "90 Day Study" as it came to be known (also “90 Day Report” from people such as Zubrin), evoked a hostile Congressional reaction towards SEI given that it would have required the largest single government expenditure since [[World War II]].<ref name = "Mars Underground">{{cite video | people = Scott J. Gill (Director), Joshua B. Dasal (Writer), Scott J. Gill (Writer)| title = The Mars Underground| medium = Documentary | location = Denver, Colorado, USA| date = 2007| url = https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0437325/ }}</ref>  Within a year, all funding requests for SEI had been denied.

[[Dan Goldin]] became [[NASA Administrator]] on April 1, 1992, officially abandoning plans for near-term human exploration beyond Earth orbit with the shift towards a "faster, better, cheaper" strategy for robotic exploration.<ref>{{cite web |last1 = Thompson |first1 = Elvia |last2 = Davis |first2 = Jennifer |title= Daniel Saul Goldin |date = November 4, 2009 |access-date= September 1, 2012 |url= https://history.nasa.gov/dan_goldin.html|archive-url=http://webarchive.loc.gov/all/20090403225957/http%3A//history%2Enasa%2Egov/dan_goldin%2Ehtml |archive-date= April 3, 2009 }}</ref>