Newt Gingrich Promises to Build a Permanent Moonbase if Elected President

Posted on January 26, 2012

Someday there will be humans living permanently on the moon. The big question is how much longer we will have to wait. A lot of the waiting depends on how much funding NASA can get for its big projects.

Funding for NASA is not something that comes up much in either Republican or Democratic political circles these days. Well, that just changed. Perhaps bored of taking potshots at Mitt Romney for being wealthy, GOP presidential candidate Newt Gingrich decided to throw space into the conversation. NPR reports that Gingrich promised a permanent base on the moon. He made the promise during a campaign stop on Florida's Space Coast. NPR says Gingrich promised a permanent base on the moon by the end of his second term. Apparently, Gingrich expects not only to win, but to also get reelected.

With the Florida primary coming up, Gingrich is most likely just trying to garner votes with the lure of an exciting project: after all, he would have to be elected twice to the presidency before he delivers on this promise. Gingrich is extremely polarizing figure. Children's author Maurice Sendak recently recently said in an interview that Gingrich is an "idiot of great renown." Sendak also says there is "something so hopelessly gross and vile about him."

Even though Gingrich may be a vile politician according to Sendak, the idea for a moonbase is still a great one and it is not a far fetched idea. NASA unveiled plans to establish a lunar base, including eventual settlement, in 2006. NASA also has a game on its site called Moonbase Alpha.

Space.com describes the plans for space from President Obama, Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich in an article here. They all fall far short of the ambitious plans for space exploration that really need to implemented if we want to see most of the solar system colonized within the next twenty or thirty years.

SPACE