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Election 2012

Different Takes on Newt Gingrich's Space Ideas

By Keith Cowing
NASA Watch
February 6, 2012
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Newt defends his space program, Politico
“Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich on Sunday defended his comments about expanding the U.S. space program. “This was not some slip. This was a deliberate effort to start a conversation,” Gingrich said on NBC’s “Meet the Press.” Last month, Gingrich said during a campaign stop in Florida that by his second term as president the U.S. flag would be planted again on the moon and that there would be a permanent lunar base.”
Growing Opportunities on Earth Rather Than Colonies on the Moon, Rick Santorum RedState
“Already, the debt of the U.S. federal government threatens to engulf the next generation of scientists, mathematicians, and engineers. Each American citizen’s share of the United States’ public debt is over $48,000, but let’s be honest for a minute. This burden won’t fall on our shoulders: it will fall on our children’s. There is over $200,000 in government debt for every American child. My goal is to shrink this number, and we can if we pursue policies that make life better for American households — unlike Speaker Gingrich’s moon colony. Our children are far too precious to be saddled with growing debt for a government that doesn’t keep its promises. This money is better spent on earth – or kept in the pockets of American families, where it truly belongs.”
Keith’s note: And of course, SNL got in on space policy by opening with a segment titled Newt Gingrich: Moon President. Oh yes, another segment “Secret Word featured U.S. astronaut Buster Allright who had some peculiar post-flight problems with “probes”. If you are outside the U.S. you can watch the skit here on YouTube.

To Boldly Go, Or Not: Newt Gingrich and his Quest to Outer Space, LA Times
“Newt Gingrich dragged the moon and Mars into the presidential contest the other day, mostly to guffaws from comedy pundits and disparaging comments from Mitt Romney, who is sure that Tranquility Base won’t be holding a nominating caucus any time soon. Newt didn’t seem to mind the razzing or that he had misjudged the meanness of the cranky Republicans he hopes to lead.”

NASA Watch founder, Explorers Club Fellow, ex-NASA, Away Teams, Journalist, Space & Astrobiology, Lapsed climber.

4 responses to “Different Takes on Newt Gingrich's Space Ideas”

  1. adastramike says:
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    It’s sad tht the media, many of whom are likely scientifically illiterate, making a joke out if the moon base proposal. They forget that one goal of the previous program (Constellation) was to build a lunar base–albeit with an expensive architecture. I doubt many would berate the Apollo astronauts for having landed on the moon, one of the 20th century’s greatest achievements. Yet why don’t they criticize the $100 billion ISS project, which is appears to be close to the amount of funds to build a decent Moon base. The media should be reminded that the space program represents some of the best this country can do — from robotic missions to human spaceflight. Yes NASA is a bureaucracy and some of that could be applied to building real hardware rather than just conducting lots of paper studies. And we should ask the Romney and Santorum campaigns just what we should do with the human space flight program — cede it to other nations or remain the leaders? And if a republican wins the presidency, studies will likely point to some kind of Moon activity for near term beyond LEO exploration

  2. Andrew_M_Swallow says:
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    The saying attributed to Mahatma Gandhi applies here.“First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win.”

    NASA’s return to the Moon has reached the second stage.  Keep advancing.