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 ...
What power plants? There are no power plants that use He3 as a fuel. There are no power plants under construction that use He3 as a fuel. There are no power plants planned that use He3 as a fuel. Fusion power is a pipe dream currently. While not a bad concept, no one has come up with a way to make it work except on an explosive basis.
As to #3 this is something that goes on on a daily basis without the insane microbiologist to direct it. Deadly antibiotic resistant bacteria are constantly evolving simply because we treat people with antibiotics, and some people succumb, but so far it hasn't ended the human race. Even AIDS - about as deadly a disease as you can imagine - hasn't made that much of a dent.
You’re right, and I’ll bet that is why he wants it. There are long-term considerations.
LLS
No, Mars and Pluto are not in our gravity well. But the moon is. You can lob stuff from the moon to earth far easier that shooting at the moon from earth.
That was one point of Moon Base Alpha:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ezzsTnZX5Jg
As long as the bad haircuts are gone and uniforms lose the bell bottoms, build it. I want my Eagles, U-Shaped Energy Weapon (extension of fist if no power), and moonbuggies.
LLS
What fusion power plants? When they start building fusion power plants then your idea might have some merit, but currently there aren't any fusion power plants existing, under construction or even in the planning stage.
Also, if do not know what else is on the moon
Nonsense - we have an excellent idea of what is there
except rather deficient in the heavier elements.
Newt’s plan is for inner-city youth build the moonbase, thus saving money and instilling a work ethic.
I've got a better idea: cut NASA's budget to zero, let the free enterprise system provide the "prizes," and keep the feds within their Constitutionally enumerated powers.
A real man would use his own money, liberal.
How would that be an advantage? (Keeping in mind that everything you put on the moon would have to be shipped up from earth anyway, and then decellerated to land on the moon without making a new crater, and then have to be boosted out of the lunar gravity well to get going again)
LLS
LOL
Would be more than a little interesting to see Newt in hyperdrive trying to out-JFK JFK, out-FDR FDR, out-TR TR, out-LBJ LBJ, out-Wilson Wilson and out-Reagan Reagan all in a single administration.
I think Silent Cal would be the only 20th Century president that he wouldn’t attempt to resemble.
“You can lob stuff from the moon to earth far easier that shooting at the moon from earth.”
world war iii will be over long before anything from the moon gets here.
Give me space. Leave the liberals to destroy earth.
Anyone know Newt’s handle of FR?
Alaska gave us nothing in the beginning.
Oil? Not until the 20th century.
Gold? Not until around 1900.
Fir? We were not short of that to the point to buy the place.
And anything we did get out of there cost much more to ship back here then it was worth for the first 40 years. Most people wanted the government to instead rebuild the nation after the war.
No one called Stewards Icebox because they knew it was full of gold and oil.
The point is that you stake the territory, then you get what you can. Costs will fall as new methods are employed.
Or you can leave it all to other countries that will gladly sell the spoils to us at a greatly inflated cost.
And just whose pocket would the prize come from? If it were worth going there there wouldn be any need for taxpayer funded incentives. Corporations would be feverishly working to get there and make a profit. I ask again, What raw material is worth $1,783,000 an ounce.
You space cheerleaders can cheer all you want as long as it's YOUR money you're spending.
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