I'd say the reason it didn't happen during any of those Presidencies is because of the cost. So now, at a time when both our immediate and longer-term fiscal peril is much worse than it was for Reagan or either Bush, now is the time to spend all that money?
And I've read that article. It's full of space geeks applauding Gingrich generally for putting emphasis on space. Gee, that's a suprise. Like asking a car salesman if he thinks its a good idea if you buy a new car.
But in any case, even that article has quotes saying how the promise of a permanent lunar colony by 2020 was "out there". And it is a huge leap from saying that someone is "technologically feasible", and saying it actually is practical, and an intelligent use of taxpayer money.
Anyway, if you want to support this, feel free to contribute what you want out of your own pocket. Just keep your hands out of mine.
The reason a moon colony hasn’t been built is because there is a damn treaty that prevents nations from exploiting space for monetary gain. And incredibly enough, there is money to be made in space.
One near earth asteroid, rich in platinum-group-metals (important in manufacturing hi-tech electronics), is equal in worth to the entire planet’s gross annual product. That is TRILLIONS OF DOLLARS!
Google: asteroid mining
G.Harry Stine’s book, The Third Industrial Revolution (1975)
As you can see, this is not a recent idea. It has been around for decades. We’ve had the technology to mine, smelt, and manufacture in space for quite some time.
The Chinese will be first to crap on the treaty with the Russians following suit.
International corporations have hundreds of billions of dollars stashed overseas (avoiding our capital gains taxes) they can invest on such a risky venture. The United States must make the first move and we won’t have to shell out big bucks, either. We should facilitate this, or the Chinese will do it.
It was as proposed by Newt to be done by private enterprise, if you owned stock in a company that wanted to get involved in this effort you could sell your stock. If private enterprise doesn’t care to invest in it, then it won’t happen. It would give those left at NASA something to do that is keeping with their original purpose. Just this morning someone on another thread was complaing that the problem with the GOP is that there is no leader with bold or grand ideas or solutions.