US Moon Base - A future secret project?

[Lauge]

Potential "future secret project":

I can find no other forum references to this, and was uncertain whether this belonged here on in the Bar. Our Mod is more than welcome to merge or move it, if appropriate.

Anyway, according to Danish online news, at a party rally in Florida on Wednesday 25 January, republican Newt Gingrich promised to build (not personally, I would assume) a US Moon Base by 2020 if he was to become the next President of the US.

Does anyone have more info on this?

Is it just your usual, run-off-the-mill political hot air? [most likely explanation]

Is he just trying to pull an "I believe that this nation should commit itself...." in order to get elected? [also highly likely]

Or is he actually likely to be serious about this? [the most interesting, but also least likely explanation]

Sound off, please.

Regards & all,

Thomas L. Nielsen
Luxembourg (expat Dane)

 

[TomS]

Gingrich is, in addition to being a politician, a some-time science fiction author. He does seem to genuinely like space travel, but there's no real support for the idea among the people who matter (i.e., Congress).

http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/newt-gingrich-promises-moon-base-flights-mars-reality/story?id=15449425

George Bush promised much the same in 2004, as I recall. Here you go:

http://articles.cnn.com/2004-01-14/tech/bush.space_1_space-exploration-mars-mission-human-missions?_s=PM:TECH

Same timeframe even; a lunar base by 2020. Eight years ago, it was almost possible to build a lunar base in 16 years. Today, when there are only 8 years to build that base, it's not even vaguely realistic.

 

[Orionblamblam]

Same timeframe even; a lunar base by 2020. Eight years ago, it was almost possible to build a lunar base in 16 years. Today, when there are only 8 years to build that base, it's not even vaguely realistic.

Not for NASA, no. But it's hardly a law of nature that the only way for America to go to the moon would be for NASA to lead the way. Go back to the NACA system, where the *industry* made the plans, and the government facilities were there to help them.

Gingrich has previous suggested a series of prizes. Offer $50B prize for a manned base on the moon by 2021, and deport meddling bureaucrats, lawyers and greenpissers to Sudan, and the problem will be in determining which moon base to vacation at in 2022.

 

[TomS]

I doubt even SpaceX would suggest with a straight face that a permanent base on the moon (and "regular" trips to Mars) are feasible within 8 years. Musk talks about 10-20 years for a Mars mission, but not "regular" trips.

 

[Michel Van]

Let face it
has a republican president ever done some successful Space program ?
Eisenhower and Vice Nixon consider manned space program as a necessary evil
Nixon murder the Apollo program and left NASA with the Shuttle program, Congress gave it a Shue string budget
Reagan came up with SDI and Space Station Freedom What was build under democrat president Clinton as ISS
Bush Senior wandet a gigant space infrastructure program and Congress gave gave it very fast death
Bush Junior wandet Apollo 2.0, five years later the Constellation-Program died most quiet
now comes Newt Gingrich promised to build a Moon base...

let's see what president Romney will do :

 

[Grey Havoc]

Roscosmos Revives Permanent Moon Base Plans

by Staff Writers
Moscow (RIA Novosti) Jan 20, 2012

File image.

Russian Space Agency Roscosmos is in talks with its European and U.S. partners on the creation of manned research bases on the Moon, the agencies chief, Vladimir Popovkin, said on Thursday.

"We don't want the man to just step on the Moon," Popovkin said in an interview with Vesti FM radio station.

"Today, we know enough about it, we know that there is water in its polar areas," he said, adding "we are now discussing how to begin [the Moon's] exploration with NASA and the European Space Agency ."

There are two options, he said: "either to set up a base on the Moon or to launch a station to orbit around it."

The project of a "prospective manned transportation system" to be sent to the Moon is currently being developed, the Roscosmos chief said.

The Moon base project seems to revive Cold War-era plans to create a permanent outpost on the Moon, which was talked about by some Soviet and U.S. scientists since the late 1950s.

Russia is also planning to send two unmanned missions to the Moon by 2020, the Luna Glob and the Luna Resource, Popovkin added.


http://www.space-travel.com/reports/Roscosmos_Revives_Permanent_Moon_Base_Plans_999.html

 

[Grey Havoc]

Is Newt Gingrich’s space plan science fiction? Washington Post (registration may be required)

This has been a painful period for the Space Coast. People here launch spaceships — or at least they did until last summer, when the space shuttle was retired after 30 years of service. Unmanned rockets still blast off from the Air Force base at Cape Canaveral, but the end of the shuttle program has meant a dramatic reduction in highly specialized engineering and technical jobs.

President Obama killed NASA’s Constellation program, created during the Bush years as a successor to the shuttle program.

Instead, the administration placed a bet that commercial spacecraft will, in a few years, carry astronauts to the international space station.

Gingrich frequently attacks Obama in his stump speeches, but in the space talk he didn’t mention him. Gingrich has been a vocal supporter of the president’s efforts to privatize elements of the space program. The Gingrich strategy essentially takes the Obama approach and runs with it.


“You could call it the Obama-Gingrich model if you want. Gingrich is doubling down on Obama,” said Charles Miller, a space industry consultant who until recently was a NASA official working on commercial spaceflight.

Obama has endorsed a manned mission to a near-Earth asteroid, with Mars remaining, as ever, the long-term objective of human spaceflight. But the president has not made space a major element of his political agenda.

Congress has insisted that the administration speed up efforts to build a new, heavy-lift rocket for deep-space exploration. That is still years away. In the meantime, no one’s going anywhere, at least not in this part of the world. U.S. astronauts can get into orbit only when NASA purchases seats for them on a Russian spacecraft.

With NASA in this awkward transition, there’s a market for a big-idea candidate who has a passion for space. But small-government advocates may see a Gingrich-style moon mission as another example of big-government overreach.

People in the audience Wednesday night liked what they heard. Gingrich spoke without notes, throwing in personal history (how he read Isaac Asimov novels and Missiles and Rockets magazine as a kid), and bluntly declaring his disappointment with what’s happened to the Space Age dream.

“I come at space from a standpoint of a romantic belief that it really is part of our destiny. And it has been tragic to see what has happened to our space program over the last 30 years,” said Gingrich.

His vision of a moon base is distinctly American, even though space missions in recent decades have often involved international collaboration. Gingrich went so far as to bring up a proposal he made when he was a young congressman to create a “Northwest Ordinance” for space in which, as soon as 13,000 Americans lived on the moon, they could petition to become a state.

“Probably the best speech I’ve heard in this political season so far. Visionary,” said John Weiler, 67, a retired shuttle worker.

“What they blame Obama for is not having a vision,” said David McLaughlin, 53, a NASA technician.

 

[Orionblamblam]

Nixon murder the Apollo program ...

That was Johnson. Nixons sin was not killing off Johnsons Great Society.

 

[Orionblamblam]

I doubt even SpaceX would suggest with a straight face that a permanent base on the moon (and "regular" trips to Mars) are feasible within 8 years.

That's because SpaceX has relatively minimal funding, and is pursuing realtively minor near-term goals. Once again... if the US FedGuv puts up a $50B - or even a $10B - prize for a moon base within eight years, then you can bet your ass that SpaceX and Bigelow are going to bust *their* asses to get there first. Any shortfall in the funds needed can be easily raised by selling stock. And that stock would sell in a hurry.

 

[Gridlock]

He just wants to leave this planet for a younger one

 

[Justo Miranda]

Cavorite dreams :-\

 

[Justo Miranda]

New frontier...again? :

 

[Justo Miranda]

Waiting the next Soyuz ? :'(

 

[magnus_z]

New frontier...again? :

August 1973:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/bartking/5928007449/sizes/l/in/set-72157627173763840/

 

[magnus_z]

File image.

This is NASA, June 1977:
http://spaceflight1.nasa.gov/gallery/images/exploration/lunarexploration/html/s78_23252.html

 

[Justo Miranda]

Here Mr. Gingrich!