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 ...
‘Gingrich Moon’ would be a good name for a hard rock drummer!
I didn't watch the debate. I do not have time to watch all of them. My life involves more things than just news and politics. I just read summaries, comments, articles, and other sources when I can.
If he did say that, I don't think he will be able to raise enough money. It costs a lot to do that and I don't think there is enough to complete the mission properly. Also, it raises questions as to who will actually be in control.
My impression is that this is one of those pie in the sky ideas that will never happen. He should have been brought up this idea ages ago so that Newt critics and competitors will not accuse him of vote pandering.
What should be mainly focused on is cutting the debt and getting spending under control.
I listened to the speech Newt gave on this issue. He is not proposing some new big spending project. In fact he spent a good part of the speech pointing out that Government does not handle development of technology as well as the private sector.
Using examples such as the Wright Brothers. He said to take a small part of the Budget for some prizes to let the American people/enterprise develop the technology that would be necessary, and also a way to keep our technology ahead of China/Russia.
When Kennedy announced goal of going to the moon. People all over the USA had the same reaction I am hearing today. How stupid. What a waste of money. Yet from a national security stand point, it would have been disastrous to have done otherwise.
My impression is that it is already successful in achieving its intended purpose. The goal all along may have been nothing more than to throw out some cockamamie idea that sounds grandiose enough to get a bunch of potential voters all starry-eyed.
And it's all free!! It won't be a government program!!
Other FReepers will prolly echo that gesture to any remaining FRuddites.
Then y'all can quicherbichin ?
http://www.comhaha.com/blog/628809-china-plans-to-build-moon-bases-in-2049/
I hope you won't take this wrong, but you might do well to do a little more investigation and a little less posting.
Newt HAS been talking up his space policy ideas for years. For example...
From another website dated 07/15/2009:
"On another front, people like Newt Gingrich are openly talking about a privately funded Lunar Base. As I have pointed out before, Mars is easier to reach than the Moon, and the logistics are similar. But if human minds aren't yet ready to believe in an affordable Mars Mission, they may be ready to believe that “Going Back to the Moon” can be done at less than NASA's price."
From your post I can see that you are a very busy person, but by your screen name I'm guessing you do make some time for an occasional movie. May I suggest 1999's "October Sky." It is the true story of Homer Hickam.
I have personally watched this movie about four or five times. Interesting when juxtaposed against the current political discussion about space. The least likely character (a female teacher with Hodgkin's disease) provides the vision. There are no shortage of skeptics about rocket flight and about anything of note coming from Coaltown.
Oh, enough of this. Go watch the movie.
There are already designs in the can. There are space stations for sale ast retail. There are ships designed.
All that is needed is a leader.
The effort need not be unilateral.
I like his moon base idea. We should have done this in the 1990s. The Truck-in-space space plane did little good. We need a simple launch vehicle so we do not need to pay the Russians to put Americans into the space station. This is a simple idea—but all great things start with an idea. We got alot for our space effort—alot more than Tang.
Yes, there are people who already want to make a profit on this, just as there were people who made money not only in the Gold Rush, but in the building of the railroads to what probably appeared to most people to be a barren wilderness.
It’s not government contracts that are necessary (and Gingrich said this, if anybody bothered to actually watch the talk) but the stability and security provided by a strong country that are the crucial things - as well as a government that does not hinder development with EPA regulations.
The Wright Brothers would never have gotten off the ground nowadays.
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?
Let them participate on their own dime and keep their hands out of my pocket, liberal.
I'm also "bichin" on behalf of all my fellow taxpayers who are tired of being robbed of 'only' $X for this pet program and $Y for that one. If Newt was a conservative he'd line up a private entity to accept donations for a moon base, so you bold, heroic FReepers could put YOUR money, and not ours, where your mouth is.
And if you were a conservative that's what you'd call on him to do. But you think big government is great as long as it's big in ways YOU like. Thief.
He'll only steal a little of MY money for HIS big ideas. The Hell with that.
Here's the fraction of taxpayers' money a conservative would spend: 0.
LOL
I love this idea! I especially love that he plans to free the entrepreneurial Spirit of America to accomplish this. Newt said up to 90% would be free enterprise based. Heck yeah!
Keith Baker was better.
Romney, for all his glaring faults, at least recognized that there is no potential profit that would motivate private companies to start moon industries. There are no resources on the moon, including the oft-discussed Helium-3, that could possibly be extracted and sold at a price on earth that could cover the cost of setting up an industrial base on the moon. With no private industries, the cheese stands alone; NASA will have to build and run the entire base. And no, the base will not “pay for itself,” or be able to produce anything that we cannot already produce on earth at a lower cost. It would be “cool,” but it would basically be a financial loss of hundreds of billions at a bare minimum.
P.S.: The private companies touted by Mr. Gingrich are currently aiming at putting satellites into earth orbit. That’s where the money is; you can make profits putting communications satellites up, but at the moment there are no profits in moon-mining.
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