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Gingrich Space Plan Promises the Moon, Literally: Lunar Base by 2020
Space.com ^ | 25 January 2012 Time: 07:07 PM ET | Mike Wall

Posted on 01/26/2012 7:36:33 AM PST by The_Victor

The United States will have a permanent manned colony on the moon by 2020 if Newt Gingrich is in charge, the Republican presidential hopeful announced today (Jan. 25).

Gingrich laid out this goal during a speech in the city of Cocoa, on Florida's Space Coast. He also said that near-Earth space would be bustling with commercial activity by 2020, and that America would possess a next-generation propulsion system by then, allowing the nation to get astronauts to Mars quickly and efficiently.

"By the end of my second term, we will have the first permanent base on the moon, and it will be American," Gingrich said.

The former Speaker of the House made no apologies for the boldness of his amibitions, which depend primarily on the emergence of a vibrant commercial spaceflight industry. He said the U.S. space program needs a kick in the pants like the one President John F. Kennedy gave it in 1961, when he promised to put a man on the moon by the end of the decade.

(Excerpt) Read more at space.com ...


TOPICS: Front Page News; Government; News/Current Events; Politics/Elections; US: Florida
KEYWORDS: bhonasa; biggovtconservative; catastrophism; fl2012; livingdocument; nasa; newt2012; space
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To: ILS21R

And - when liberals take over the whole planet, we have somewhere to escape to.


181 posted on 01/26/2012 11:09:39 AM PST by RockinRight (If you're waiting to drink until you find pure water, you're going to die of dehydration.)
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To: JustSayNoToNannies
The judiciary is the final arbitrator of what is and is not constitutional, since the judiciary did not find it unconstitutional for the federal government to build railroads to the west they would likely not find it unconstitutional for the federal government to build a moon base. In short the constitutional argument does not work, as shown by precedents.
182 posted on 01/26/2012 11:11:37 AM PST by jpsb
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To: from occupied ga

A rail gun on the moon could fire cargo pallets of valuable metals back to earth for very little money.

Getting there the first time is the expensive part. With the moon’s light gravity and no atmosphere, a solar powered rail gun would become just another basic piece of industrial hardware.

Fire the pallets into Low Earth Orbit to be collected by an autonomous tug for a consolidated delivery package. Have the rail gun send an ablative heat shield made from moon rock to protect the cargo during entry into the earth’s atmosphere.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VBQHtF3WhMw
Earth and Moon Gravity Well Comparison


183 posted on 01/26/2012 11:12:12 AM PST by BwanaNdege (Man has often lost his way, but modern man has lost his address - Gilbert K. Chesterton)
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To: jpsb

“I thought the federal government building the US railway system to open the west was a very good one.”

The transcontinental railway did not open up the west. There was a gold rush going on in California at the time. By 1861 over 300,000 people had arrived in the state.

General Ulysses S. Grant-”I do not know what we would do in this great national emergency [Civil War] were it not for the gold sent from California.”


184 posted on 01/26/2012 11:12:22 AM PST by running_dog_lackey
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To: LibLieSlayer

I excitedly posted his Cocoa speech on an astronomy forum I frequent and they removed it after reportedly negative replies. I was asleep so I didn’t see the replies before they removed it, so I guess I have to take their word for it.

The comments at the end of the Space.com article on Newt were overwhelmingly negative.

What the heck is up with all these eggheads?
The science is not settled on global warming or evolution, but I bet these are the types who believe it.


185 posted on 01/26/2012 11:14:04 AM PST by paintriot (Newt 2012 & 2016 Thinking long term!)
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To: from occupied ga
Our "Space Program" should have as job #1 how to solve the problem of putting a truckload of payload in orbit for the same cost it takes to ship it coast to coast.

Do THAT and we actually WILL have a space program...with factories in space, colonization, interplanetary economies, the whole lot. Until then, it's a very noble but very expensive pursuit.

186 posted on 01/26/2012 11:17:24 AM PST by AnTiw1
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To: airborne

http://www.googlelunarxprize.org/prize-details

The Google Lunar X PRIZE is igniting a new era of lunar exploration by offering the largest international incentive prize of all time. A total of $30 million in prizes are available to the first privately funded teams to safely land a robot on the surface of the Moon, have that robot travel 500 meters over the lunar surface, and send video, images and data back to the Earth. Teams must be at least 90% privately funded, though commercially reasonable sales to government customers are allowed without limit.


187 posted on 01/26/2012 11:17:24 AM PST by BwanaNdege (Man has often lost his way, but modern man has lost his address - Gilbert K. Chesterton)
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To: jpsb
The judiciary is the final arbitrator of what is and is not constitutional, since the judiciary did not find it unconstitutional for the federal government to build railroads to the west they would likely not find it unconstitutional for the federal government to build a moon base. In short the constitutional argument does not work, as shown by precedents.

Does the Constitution recognize the right to abortion, as the Supreme Court held in Roe v Wade and has reaffirmed in a number of subsequent rulings?

188 posted on 01/26/2012 11:18:43 AM PST by JustSayNoToNannies (A free society's default policy: it's none of government's business.)
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To: from occupied ga
In short a taxpayer funded lunar colony is nothing but a giant waste of resources.

Sadly, I agree. However, all that a properly run government does is a waste of resources: courts to punish criminal activity and settle private disputes, and military spending for attacks that rarely come.

The question is, then: what is justifiable waste? A moon base for 'scientific' or 'jobs' purposes, no. Stopping a Chinese orbital missile base, yes. This is why the Constitution permits Army and Navy spending, but not scientific spending (not that anyone notices that, anymore).

If Newt can keep U.S. rocket/missile technology ahead of China's, then I think that "giant waste of resources" is actually well spent.

189 posted on 01/26/2012 11:32:54 AM PST by mrreaganaut (Stupidity killed the cat. Curiosity was framed.)
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To: BwanaNdege

We can’t even make a rail gun work reliably here on earth. And more to the point what valuable metals? The astronauts didn’t see any valuable metals lying around on the lunar surface. They found rocks and dirt very similar to what you’d find in Hawaii. Nothing that you’d get anything valuable from


190 posted on 01/26/2012 11:40:16 AM PST by from occupied ga (your own government is your most dangerous enemy)
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To: mrreaganaut
Stopping a Chinese orbital missile base, yes

I'm trying to figure out why the Chinese would base missiles a quarter of a million miles away from the us giving a couple of days flight time when they can put them in boomers 50 miles off the coast.

191 posted on 01/26/2012 11:43:23 AM PST by from occupied ga (your own government is your most dangerous enemy)
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To: from occupied ga; JustSayNoToNannies
Building postal roads - yes. Research - can't find that in my copy of the constituiton.

I agree. Obviously, the solution is to build a post road from Moon Base Alpha to Moon Base Beta. Now that the constitutionality is out of the way, what's your real objection?

192 posted on 01/26/2012 11:46:27 AM PST by mrreaganaut (Stupidity killed the cat. Curiosity was framed.)
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To: mrreaganaut
Obviously, the solution is to build a post road from Moon Base Alpha to Moon Base Beta. Now that the constitutionality is out of the way, what's your real objection?

Come back when you want a serious discussion.

193 posted on 01/26/2012 11:50:26 AM PST by from occupied ga (your own government is your most dangerous enemy)
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To: gusty; from occupied ga
I will go along with this, like Lewis and Clark, if the tax system and rates are the same as they were during the Jefferson administration.

YES!!! I think this will answer everybody's objections.

194 posted on 01/26/2012 11:52:21 AM PST by mrreaganaut (Stupidity killed the cat. Curiosity was framed.)
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To: mrreaganaut
Obviously, the solution is to build a post road from Moon Base Alpha to Moon Base Beta.

That authorizes the road - but not the bases.

195 posted on 01/26/2012 11:54:22 AM PST by JustSayNoToNannies (A free society's default policy: it's none of government's business.)
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To: paintriot
Progressives are everywhere... but I have MANY friends working at Stennis Space center... less than 1% of the employees would vote for obama. They do not like being a cultural experiment and riding on russian rockets.

LLS

196 posted on 01/26/2012 11:55:45 AM PST by LibLieSlayer (Recession: You have no job* Depression: I have no job* Recovery: obama has no job!)
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To: struggle
Space is a frontier. . . .

I've heard that it is the final frontier.

197 posted on 01/26/2012 12:10:02 PM PST by Charles Henrickson (To boldly go and split infinitives.)
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To: from occupied ga
I'm trying to figure out why the Chinese would base missiles a quarter of a million miles away from the us giving a couple of days flight time when they can put them in boomers 50 miles off the coast.

It makes no short-term sense, true. Our spending should reflect the greater threat. That doesn't mean that the Chinese aren't planing to do it eventually; they make very long-term plans. Is Newt over-enthusiastic? Yes. Is it also a ploy to get aerospace worker votes? Yes.

It doesn't mean that NO public money should go toward it.

198 posted on 01/26/2012 12:27:04 PM PST by mrreaganaut (Stupidity killed the cat. Curiosity was framed.)
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To: from occupied ga

“Railgun” should read “Linear Motor”, the broader category that includes railgun.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linear_motor

Common lunar minerals
Calcium (Ca)
Aluminium (Al)
Iron (Fe),
Magnesium (Mg)
Silicon (Si)
Titanium (Ti)
Oxygen (O)

The value of these is that they are common industrial raw materials and they are NOT at the bottom of the earth’s gravity well. They may be used to fabricate space vehicles & habitat without having to pay the HUGE cost for the freight elevator ride up out of Earth’s enormous (relative to the Moon’s) gravity well.


199 posted on 01/26/2012 12:44:51 PM PST by BwanaNdege (Man has often lost his way, but modern man has lost his address - Gilbert K. Chesterton)
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To: JustSayNoToNannies
That authorizes the road - but not the bases.

Aha! Post Offices!

More seriously, I'm just objecting to the knee-jerk "it's unconstitutional!" that people have when they don't like a policy. Just because something's a bad idea doesn't mean it's unconstitutional.

Honestly, moon bases are more constitutional than, say, Medicare or Social Security.

200 posted on 01/26/2012 12:45:05 PM PST by mrreaganaut (Stupidity killed the cat. Curiosity was framed.)
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