Posted on 01/28/2012 3:30:36 AM PST by Cincinatus' Wife
COMMENTARY | During the Republican presidential debate in Jacksonville, Fla., Thursday night, the subject of Newt Gingrich's moon colony idea came up. During the exchange, Mitt Romney especially revealed a smallness of vision and an ignorance of the issue.
[snip]
If Romney wants to know why Gingrich is so focused on the moon, he could go no further than to read Paul Spudis' The Case for Renewed Human Exploration of the Moon" in which the rationale for returning to the moon, not only for science, but also as a prelude to the exploration of the Solar System is examined. Spudis also covers mining lunar resources, such as water.
Then Romney can read Taylor Dinerman's piece about the strategic value of the moon and its importance to national security. Spudis also covers the Chinese challenge where it comes to the moon.
Can we afford to return to the moon with a $15 trillion national debt? The question is actually whether we can afford not to?
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
I was on elementry school when dogs were sent into space..
and then Yuri Gagarin the Russian and Gary Shepherd the American went ...
It was fasinating and inspiring..
Science and Math were emphsised in school as worthy and necessary subjects..
every little boy wanted to be an astronaut..
John F Kennedy had vision and imagination..
He dreamed of space ships going to the moon andf back..
Willie Mitty cant see past his comb..
You have not studied Newt’s space proposal. His intention is to spend LESS, but stragetically apply the money with private enterprise goals and benchmark achievements. Unaccountable, big space budgets without a clear goal have wasted billions at NASA.
I don't need to.
A moon base with 19,000 inhabitants in 8 years with no increase in the budget? come on.
Umm, ok. So, I’m sitting on the far side of the moon and I can see your invading spacecraft coming at me for two days on a fixed course. I think that gives me a bit of an advantage.
The entire world is on the brink of economic collapse and the silly notion of a revamped idea of space exploration is being discussed as a sane and viable project to fund for, well, forever and without budget limits. Moon base, indeed. Time to can NASA as the political arm of the RATs and restrict space research to military purposes - and even that with restraint.
This kind of talk is symptomatic of the delusions too many seem to be under.
I know people who are out of work and are talking about buying new cars or spending credit on restaurants, etc. like this was 1999. Forget about it, Boomers. The Kennedy/Nixon/Moon dreams are gone and we have other (much more important) fish to fry.
In 1968, we actually made everything we needed right down to the rivets and bolts of the moon landers. Today, we make next to nothing and deficit spend our childrens futures on video games and mythical intellectual and service related economies. The seed corn in the barn is gone, folks.
Do we really believe our best hopes are tied to vapid and childish dreaming about the next Christmas’ wishlist? What we really need is a hard evening at the kitchen table with all the bills and we need to stay there until our income fits our outlay.
Period.
I know that grown-up talk but, really, it sounds like it’s needed around here.
Here’s a link to a NASA paper that gives 180 reason we should have a moon base:
http://www.nasa.gov/pdf/163560main_LunarExplorationObjectives.pdf
Also another article link: http://www.businessinsider.com/180-reasons-nasa-thinks-we-should-have-a-moon-base-2012-1?op=1
If the stupid party wanted to talk grown-up we wouldn't have the sorry crop of candidates we have now.
Nonsense! There are already several venture capitolist that are investing in space.
Or the groupies for them...
“Actually, the Chinese will build a military base on the moon. If they build it on the dark side, it would be virtually invulnerable to attack.”
and within 20 minutes of anything launched at us from the moon earth based missiles will turn china into a wasteland. world war iii will be over long before anything from the moon can get here.
NASA has been run by scientists for too long. The understanding, the engineering, the need (and reward) for us leading into the future has been buried by “studies” and a bloated bunch of academics sucking on the government teat.
You think? We're retreating from innovation and exploration so we will not be the top dog launching anything at anyone. We will be China's lap dogs.
-—”and within 20 minutes of anything launched at us from the moon earth based missiles will turn china into a wasteland. world war iii will be over long before anything from the moon can get here.”
You think? We’re retreating from innovation and exploration so we will not be the top dog launching anything at anyone. -—
We have ICBMs. we don’t need innovation to launch them.
I see a legitimate role for government in pathfinding in space like Columbus or Lewis and Clark. However, with them, there was hope for entrepreneurial followers.
Unfortunately, space has been effectively rendered off limits to industry aside from the role of taxi driver, freight hauler, and hotel management under government contract.
I’d be a lot more impressed if Gingrich were promising to work toward withdrawing from the international space treaty (which will take a decade in itself). I would go even further and announce that any company can lay claim to asteroids and hundred thousand acre tracts on the moon or any planet they can put feet on and show a drive to utilize the resources.
Hit "post" too soon. Where do you think our defense satellites and communication satellites and all those things that we need are located??????? The Chinese have already been doing situational awareness and even destroyed one of their satellites in a maneuver. Hello?
?
—Hit “post” too soon. Where do you think our defense satellites and communication satellites and all those things that we need are located??????? The Chinese have already been doing situational awareness and even destroyed one of their satellites in a maneuver. Hello?-—
Hello... they did it from Earth.
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