Gingrich proposes Moon base by 2020
January 27, 2012
Domed lunar settlement (credit: Pat Rawlings/NASA)
Newt Gingrich has called for a bold, aggressive space program that would establish a permanent base on the Moon by 2020, along with a next-generation propulsion system for taking humans to Mars, and commercial near-Earth activities that include science, tourism, and manufacturing.
Transcript of the speech, courtesy of the National Space Society.
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Comments (13)
by Nyk
Better to have a eugenics program to raise the average IQ of every population on Earth to at least East Asian/Jewish IQ levels. We aren’t going anywhere from this planet anytime soon unless we become smarter and increase the proportions of Nobel Prize winner geniuses as a percentage of the total population. Selective breeding is the only currently known method to increase average intelligence of humans over generations, let’s put it to good use. Our end-goal is to have self-improving machines and be able to increase individual intelligence on-the-fly, but first we have to improve humankind through the rudimentary techniques that we can.
by Greg H
Eugenics? Are you serious? Your reasoning is so archaic its like explaining DNA to creationist. Although all humans are not equally gifted mentally IQ is not effected by your race but rather by your life and how you are taught. Race isn’t even a substantiated term as genetically all humans are similar enough to deny difference in brain function. What you are suggesting was played out in wwII and was called the holocaust.
by Dan Robinson
This sounds like testosterone, or the closest thing we can imagine to “political science” to me. If it’s to reduce unemployment, and for other reasons, we’d do better to reduce population and other down-to-earth advances.
by Your Mobile Site
Gee, I thought conservatives always wanted to keep everything as it was, because life was best when they were 12.
If Gingrich wants to be progressive, why doesn’t he just join the Dems?
Seriously though… Bush tried this many years ago and it failed. What makes Gingrich think this will get him the presidency?
Is the really that out of touch with reality?
by libra9
No, lets not invest in science, technology, and engineering. Let’s spend it on more bureaucrats and social experiments.
by Thomas B. Albright
I hate to add anymore – but our history has always been manipulated. First, off – Eisenhower admitted he was given credit that belonged to Gen. Kruger. His leap frog to president, together with Kennedy, let the booster gap lie stay alive to elect Kenneddy. Kennedy’s gross failure in the Bay of Pigs invasion
by Giulio Prisco
That was also my first reaction, why does it have to be the Grinch?
I like Gingrich’s positions on other issues only slightly more than a violent headache. But I must admit that I liked this speech a lot, it was as energizing as JFK’s 1961 “Moon speech.” I find it sad that other politicians, with more progressive positions on social and cultural issues, do not show the same support for space exploration, going back to the moon, and onwards to the planets and the stars.
Of course it was political pandering, but it is good to hear similar speeches now and then.
@Daniel – the national emergency is that the people in your country, and especially the younger generations, seem to have lost interest in science and engineering. A space program like in the 60s is what is needed to make science and technology sexy again. The kids who saw Armstrong walking on the Moon in 1969 studies science and built the Internet in the 80s and the 90s, and repaid the investment in the space program hundredfold.
by nehopsa
Actually, it WAS impressive. He knows what he speaks about… and, unlike others, he did not get a short briefing to feign enthusiasm – he has been caring about Space for decades. His “Windows of Opportunity” [he mentions in the speech] was published 1987. This was NOT an opportunistic speech cobbled together for a moment of expediency. He does need support from the industry…so at least he does not offends them. Hush..hush naysayers.
I know what I am talking about. I happened to have written my master thesis about this issue [ The Space Frontier: A Dream, Vision or Mission? On Space Motivation - from a lowly Middle European perspective] and Newt is … spot on. He happened to present in 15 minutes what took me 150 pages to write about: the dreams of Space were fed to the pigs. [let us reverse it!] My generation (I was a kid in 1969) lost Space because of this.
What emergency? It is about dreams….
OK: here is the deal: either you grow your belly and twiddle your thumbs – or you run…[.Forest, run...].
Your choice.
by Giulio Prisco
I have no doubts that he really believes we should go back to space. I am sure he was perfectly aware of the fact that the speech would be praised by the space enthusiasts of his party, but also criticized by others as costly science fiction and misuse of public funds. Probably he has lost as many votes as he has gained, and he an old and savvy politician who knows these things.
I will just say that I would love a U.S. President who really supports space like NG, but I have strong reservations on his positions on many other important issues.
by RobinSongs
Why does it have to be the Grinch?
by Max Osterhaus
Ha ha, Newt Gingrich for One-Solar-System Government!
I’ll keep my liberty and let private industry move as quickly as the people want without government forcing the market…
by Daniel
And so begins the special interest giveaway. It’s not enough that we are borrowing money from the Chinese to pay our way, Gingrich now wants us to borrow billions so we can fund a moon base. And for what national emergency is this?
The emergency is to get him elected by pandering to the voters who live on Florida’s east coast and work in that industry.
Do we not recognize political pandering when we see it and should it not be condemned for what it is?
Sell NASA off, use the money to pay down the debt and let private capital fund a moon base and realize the gains.
As a country, we have so mismanaged our funds that we have no right to a moon base paid for with tax dollars.
by Thomas B. Albright
That may be different purely for politics – but consider reality:
1, Man is very fragile and requries tremendous costly fragile protection, and concern. Only a robotic man should be considered if at all.
2. Suitable vacuum facilities can be made for manufacture on earth.
3. All of the ballyhoo about pure manufacturing in space was shot down long ago because there are no 100% pure products for projective manufacture.
4. It is purely for politics.