Replying to New Gingrich's Moon Colony: I'm not letting this one go.

lol I'd go. Aint nothing else better to do

Well now that Mr. Gingrich is no longer a contender in the 2012 presidential race it appears the Moon Base will be shelved for a few more decades. If it weren't for the astronomical (pardon the expression) cost - that cost likely being in the tens (and perhaps hundreds) of trillions of dollars. Oh well, it was a nice school-boy science fiction fantasy while it lasted.

Peter C.

Poughkeepsie, NY

I with you Peter.

A quick informal poll for DC Message Board readers: If you had a chance to live on the moon, would you take it? I personally would not, because, well, it's the moon and inhospitable to human life. Sure, the "inside" temperature would be a constant and pleasant 72 degrees Fahrenheit, but a "moon day" lasts an "earth month" (the time it take for the moon to spin on it's axis is about 29 earth days). The lack of earth gravity would be fun, but the constant threat of death by explosive decompression would be no fun at all. I guess truth be told I'd like to spend a few days there just to see what it was like, I just hope the American taxpayers wouldn't mind the 10-20 million dollars it would cost them for my excursion.

Peter
Poughkeepsie, NY

"I was sad when right after Obama signed the Affordable Care Act, he death-paneled my mom. Please shelter me on your moon base." - Comedian Rob Delaney

It's actually not a bad idea, per se, but the main problem, really, the only problem, would be funding. It would be several trillion dollars after all is said and done, and it's just not money we have right now, and won't for a long time. Again, millions live at or below the poverty line (myself included), with no health insurance and no future. Combine those three facts with I'm also white and college educated, and I'd like to see the several trillion dollars spent on something else besides a "moon base."
For instance, I think there are a few thousand bridges built throughout the the U.S. interstate system in the 1960's that are in dire need of repair or replacement. That's one "for instance" and there are hundreds more: priorities people, priorities...

If Newt wants to cut spending but wants another state, why not just go with making Washington, DC a state? Oh that's right, because, in Newt's own words: "that would be crazy."
Right...

In theory, a moon base isn't really a bad idea, but we, as a country, have more pressing issues currently such as millions of people losing their Earth houses thanks to the big banks, etc. Where does Newt propose we acquire the two-trillion-plus dollars this moon base would require for construction? Newt and the Republican base are categorically opposed to raising taxes on the wealthy
so maybe more talk of gutting Social Security, Medicare, Education, et. al. I somehow think I'm not the only one who believes this may be a, ahem, "bad idea."

Wow a moon base...sign me up! LOL...I think it would be a cool idea but don't we all agree that there are to many issues we need to address here on planet Earth/USA before we build a moon base ? Plus it would take more than two terms in office to build something like that. I have friends who work for NASA and i went to a symposium on just that topic over 10 years ago in DC with some of the TOP scientist in the field talking about 2020 as a target but as we all know we have not even started to build it yet so forget about 8 years...No way...not enough time to do so. I will add to this post later but now its off to work. Butter...

There are: "...more than 600,000 residents of rural communities still do not have the
basic water and sanitation services the rest of us take for granted."

So, over half a million people in the United States of America don't have running water, yet what the USA really needs is a moon base so we can have 50 U.S. states and 1 U.S Moon state?

That's a pretty glaring example of politicians not having their priorities straight. Maybe a good campaign slogan would be "indoor plumbing before moon stations."