Newt Gingrich’s moon base plan a ‘cheap trick’ to get votes

[Jamie B]

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/newt-gingrich-moon-base-plan-a-cheap-trick-votes-space-experts-article-1.1013684

"It's a gimmick," said Howard Chipman, CEO of Aurora Aerospace, a facility near Tampa that offers astronaut training. "It's a cheap trick to get some Florida voters because of all of the space jobs here."

No kidding. It is such a childish and transparent statement that edited needs to go away - quickly.

It reeks of desperation. Besides, we have many more domestic issues to worry about that require fixing.
 

[Perd Hapley]

I remember the last time you declared Newt DOA. Just before he swept the SC primary. Hmmm...

[TommyGunn]

" .... To boldly go where no man 12 men have gone before....."

Well, it isn't going to happen anyway.
Personally I'd prefer to see a manned Mars excursion mission.  But our economy is too far in the tank right now.
In the 1960s the "space race" actually provided a boost of technology, engineering jobs, and a lot of serendipitous benefits as the tech developed for the lunar mission seeped out into the general economy.
Anyone remember Tang? 
Forget that, the silicon chip, ballpoint pens that write upside down, there's a BIG list of stuff from the space race.
I rather doubt that we'll ever repeat that.

[SADShooter]

So, you identified one opinion you agree with, and you attack edited?

In principle I suppose you're right about a permanent moon base. However, I'm in the camp arguing that continued, aggressive space exploration, in a public-private partnership as Gingrich describes, is a potential benefit to addressing many of our domestic problem. As a vision, it's certainly preferable to "tax the rich, give to the poor so in ten years the rich will be less rich and the poor will still be poor."

[geronimotwo]

changing your priorities/policies depending on the audience?  that's the beauty of politics.  it's also the reason i am supporting ron paul.   

[MicroBalrog]

What is the benefit of a manned Mars mission?

I mean, clearly we're not going to set up even a tiny colony there - if nothing else public opinion wouldn't take it if an astronaut fell ill out there and slowly died. So we're going to have four, five, ten people hop out to Mars, take some soil samples a robot could have taken, and fly home? For morale?

Permanent human habitation in space - whether on the Moon or elsewhere - is the necessary step if we are serous about this whole space thing.

But of course that would require far bigger lifters than we have today.

[Ron]

What's with the name calling? I still see a sticky at the top of the page.

I'm all for continued space exploration, a moon base may make a lot of sense as a launching pad.

Having said that I'm still probably voting for primarily libertarians this next time around. Not a lot of love for big government programs like that in libertarian circles I suspect.

The republicans and democrats can dismantle this country without my assent from now on.

[Ben]

That's where I am now as well Ron.

Regarding Ron's first sentence, let's please cut out the derogatory nicknames and name calling. This always seems to increase around here when we get into a major election cycle. Review the sticky at the top of politics. Otherwise expect to see your posts edited as needed to remove any derogatory references. Thanks.

[Jamie B]

I remember the last time you declared Newt DOA. Just before he swept the SC primary. Hmmm...

Newt needs to go is what I said here.
Not my fault that he cannot recognize his failures.
You might want to increase your reading comprehension.

[roo_ster]

That's where I am now as well Ron.

Regarding Ron's first sentence, let's please cut out the derogatory nicknames and name calling. This always seems to increase around here when we get into a major election cycle. Review the sticky at the top of politics. Otherwise expect to see your posts edited as needed to remove any derogatory references. Thanks.

I would echo this, with two caveats.

1. Physician, heal thyself. 
An awful lot of hysterical name-calling from those with descriptions under their handle that start with "Ad*" and "Mod*."  I've a thick skin and really don't care if folks call me names.  I've had folks who were really good at it hurl abuse at me and have yet to see anything here to get all weepy about.  What does get under my skin is getting called a name and then being hectored to not call names.

2. Name calling versus truth-in-labeling(1).
I used a term that got a thread locked.  The term was used correctly and descriptively, not pejoratively.  A term that was accurate and was generated by folks with that particular set of beliefs as a way to label themselves and their particular set of beliefs.  It was no more "name calling" than were I to call, say, MicroBalrog "libertarian" or fistful "conservative."



(1) Or: Let me google that term for you

[HankB]

A moonbase?

Abolish food stamps, WIC, welfare, aid to illegal aliens, the departments of Commerce, Education, Housing & Urban Development and Energy, the Bureau of Indian Affairs, the Medicare drug program, much of foreign aid, EITC, and a whole host of positions from the numerous czars down to the Poet Laureate (including everyone with the word "Diversity" as part of their title or job description) and you'll have plenty of money to fund space exploration.

Fire the inept, brown-nosing political administrative bureaucrats at NASA and replace them with real visionaries (Werner von Braun had his faults, but he got things done), give them a budget and a goal, and you'll have an agency that will do us proud.

We'll get a lot more "bang for the buck" by funding space research than we have by pouring trillions down the cesspit of LBJ's "Great Society" programs and their successors . . .

[Perd Hapley]

As an American, I am glad that we are free to abuse our leaders with unhappy names. Let's bring this beautiful tradition back to APS.

[RocketMan]

All true, HankB.  But it's not going to happen.  Declining civilizations do the opposite.

edited for speelink.

[Tallpine]

An actual operational shuttle would be a nice first step to further exploration.

Can't do much of anything useful until we can get into orbit economically and routinely.

[longeyes]

A moonbase?

Abolish food stamps, WIC, welfare, aid to illegal aliens, the departments of Commerce, Education, Housing & Urban Development and Energy, the Bureau of Indian Affairs, the Medicare drug program, much of foreign aid, EITC, and a whole host of positions from the numerous czars down to the Poet Laureate (including everyone with the word "Diversity" as part of their title or job description) and you'll have plenty of money to fund space exploration.

Fire the inept, brown-nosing political administrative bureaucrats at NASA and replace them with real visionaries (Werner von Braun had his faults, but he got things done), give them a budget and a goal, and you'll have an agency that will do us proud.

We'll get a lot more "bang for the buck" by funding space research than we have by pouring trillions down the cesspit of LBJ's "Great Society" programs and their successors . . .

+1

This would require a civilization that cared more about excellence than mediocrity, more about achievement than subsistence.   We had one once but compassion strangled it "for the children."

The future of space exploration--barring major breakthroughs--lies largely with unmanned projects, with robots, with technology extending our intellectual and sensory reach, not the literal transplanting of human organisms into alien environments.

[Hutch]

I don't guess this matters, as Newt's chances are as dead as chivalry.  edited cleaned his clock in Florida.

[seeker_two]

We'll get a lot more "bang for the buck" by funding space research than we have by pouring trillions down the cesspit of LBJ's "Great Society" programs and their successors . . .

.....and we can send the worst of the welfare frauds to Mars.....

[Tallpine]

.....and we can send the worst of the welfare frauds to Mars.....

I though we were going to build a penal colony on the moon 

[Jamie B]

I though we were going to build a penal colony on the moon  

I would suggest relocation of the 3 branches of federal government!

I don't guess this matters, as Newt's chances are as dead as chivalry.  edited cleaned his clock in Florida.

Exactly correct. Looks as if FL voters saw through edited thin pandering. Thank God!

[dogmush]

Exactly correct. Looks as if FL voters saw through edited thin pandering. Thank God!

No. FL Republicans tend to be from NY and Mass.  Romney's their kind of guy.  He has been a clear winner here for a month or so.

[seeker_two]

No. FL Republicans tend to be from NY and Mass.  Romney's their kind of guy.  He has been a clear winner here for a month or so.

True....Florida is the most liberal of the "red States"....Romney winning it was a given.....doesn't mean that he'll win the others.....

[lupinus]

I though we were going to build a penal colony on the moon 

Just been too long since the last Snake Plissken adventure?

[agricola]

+1

This would require a civilization that cared more about excellence than mediocrity, more about achievement than subsistence.   We had one once but compassion strangled it "for the children."

The future of space exploration--barring major breakthroughs--lies largely with unmanned projects, with robots, with technology extending our intellectual and sensory reach, not the literal transplanting of human organisms into alien environments.

TBH every time I hear the robot argument I think of some stone-age man being mocked by his fellows for lashing a few bits of wood together and floating off to the other side of the river to see what was going on over there. 

A programme of manned exploration of the solar system (and settlement to follow) would inevitably result in immense gains to science, technology of various kinds and would almost certainly spin off countless other benefits that are difficult to predict.   Add to that the resources that we know are out there and the reasons for not going boil away to nothingness. 

[longeyes]

I'm not saying there will never be manned exploration or that there shouldn't be, only that much of it will be "unmanned" and that the distinction is going to become meaningless over time.  Man is already a "cyborg" by virtue of his tools.  We ARE our orbiting telescopes.  All of it is just an extension of our human form and senses.  By the time we "colonize" space men will be genetically modified and/or technologically amplified.

[Zardozimo Oprah Bannedalas]

I think a moonbase is a decent idea, just not at this time, due to financial issues. I suspect that Newt is a true blue Keynesian, and thinks that a few billion-dollar projects will fix our economy.