Click an eyeball!
Keep Your Eyes on the Prize!
Abolish FReepathons
Donate Monthly
Sponsors will contribute $10
For each new monthly sign-up!
Posted on 01/27/2012 1:26:56 PM PST by Krankor
Newt Gingrich’s moon base idea takes center stage at the GOP debate in Florida
If aliens were watching from outer space, even they might have been shocked by the amount of time devoted to space travel in Thursday’s presidential debate.
Newt Gingrich excited Florida’s struggling space coast this week when he pledged to industry executives that he would colonize the moon by the end of his second presidential term. The big promise drew flak from his GOP rivals, and a question at the debate from a Twitter user who wanted to know how the former speaker planned to pay for a lunar state. Continue Reading
(Excerpt) Read more at politico.com ...
He’s driving the narrative right now, that’s a good thing. It’s going to be a tough fight but the national polls even by libs showing Newt up give me hope. I’m actually surprised Romdog isn’t beating him in the polls nationally after all the smears and the GOPE going nuclear.
On the topic of this thread, when Newt mentioned this last night Romney accused him of pandering!!!! This coming from ROMNEY!
Most of our medical discoveries came out of wars or other big military/quasi-military projects. The discovery of the mosquito as the source of the spread of yellow fever, for example, came out of the studies of Walter Reed after the building of the Panama Canal. A Cuban researcher had already written that he thought it was the mosquito, and Walter Reed gave him credit in his own writings, but it would never have happened without the big Panama Canal project.
Medical research comes out of any risky undertaking, and the moon project is a big, risky, purely American undertaking.
You obviously didn’t listen to the speech. This is not a government project; NASA will function mainly as a coordinating agency for private entities, doing things like making sure onerous requirements (such as the EPA) and red tape don’t get in the way. The budget for NASA will actually be reduced, because it won’t be doing the work.
The work - as in the building of the railroads - will be done by people who have the guts and the money to go out there and try it, and it will employ huge numbers of people as soon as it starts up, ranging from top-level scientists to the people who run the roach coaches at the building sites.
And to offer prizes with taxpayer money. Nuts to that.
Building a moon base is a wonderful idea, don’t get me wrong. However, it raises a lot of questions. How are we going to pay for it? We have no money. What about treaties we signed regarding space?
Agreed. No amount of money will solve the world’s, or this countries’ problems. Thus, fund some real forward-thinking scientific projects like space travel. Never ever give up funding for such projects because of other shortcomings.
There are vast rare metal deposits on the moon and the planets waiting to be developed. The Chinese have plans to develop these resources on the moon as well as establish a military presence there (think huge missile platform 240,000 miles from earth).
In a nation preoccupied with X-boxes and American Idol while waiting for the next government subsidy, who's got the time or the vision to think about the future?
Frankly, Newt's speech was one of the most inspiring I've heard in years, filled with anecdotes, history, and vision.
Here's the link to Newt's speech on C-Span: Space Policy
Personally I doubt that, although I have no doubt there are plenty who have dreams of making a ton of money from government contracts.
You didn't watch the debate did you..he said private funds..entrepreneurs with a desire innovate.
Curing cancer is just like unionized education - morphed into a big freakin boondoggle. The whole program needs to be reviewed as well. Pour billions and billions into it and it is now an institution peppered with people who have settled into a comfortable career because of it. Just sayin...
...entrepreneurs with a desire to innovate
Yea, what a stupid idea that is. Just think, if you offered people cash prizes to supplement government programs, do you think people would actually participate? Why, if they did you would have lotteries in most every state!! /heavy sarc
Agreed, as well as the Russians. And the Russians are staking claims to vast expanses of ocean bed minerals in the Artic as well. And where are we on this? Focusing on the frickin “disenfranchised” poople.
It cost Apollo 135 billion in todays dollars to put a 50 ton payload on the moon. Rocket technology is basically the same today as it was then. A moon base would require 1000’s of tons of payload. And for what? Moon rocks. You know any entrepeneurs willing to risk trillions to lose it?
Yeah, the Chinese spend all kinds of money building ghost cities too. Just because they're willing to do it doesn't mean we should do it too.
As to a missile platform, why would they set up a location for a missile base far enough away that we'd have days to launch a retaliatory strike before their missiles got here? It doesn't make any sense.
I watched Newt’s space speech the other day. Not only did I learn a few things, I was inspired. Then, last night’s debate really twisted his words and intent on space.
What people are not seeing is that a moon base is not the end goal. Just as JFK vowed we would be on the moon by the end of the 60’s with really no idea how it would happen when he uttered those words, Newt’s aspirations are really intended to unleash the creativity of American minds. By issuing this challenge, he is fostering a renewed emphasis on science and math with the results bringing untold advances in metals, composites, propulsion, who knows what else?!
As far as the governments role in financing these endeavors, the issuance of prize money makes perfect sense. Rather than underwriting an entire program, spend just a fraction of that amount as an enticement to some entrepreneur who will do all they can to claim the prize without the built in cost of bureaucracies. Let businesses compete with each other for the best and brightest, develop new ancillary technologies that they can profit from and ultimately claim the prizes that they will pour back into further development.
Newt thinks outside the box.
Yes! I really liked the prize idea. After all, as he pointed out, Lindbergh flew to Paris...for a $25,000 prize.
And it would be a heck of a lot cheaper than supporting the NASA bureaucracy doing its Muslim outreach.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.