Newt Gingrich Proposes Moon, Mars Flights: A Reality Check
Can the U.S. Afford New Space Effort? Gingrich Proposes One
Gamma-Keystone/Getty Images
The lunar colony, as imagined by American engineers, Sep. 26, 1969.
By GINA SUNSERI
1/26/12, 3:28 PM EST
A colony on the moon? Republican Presidential candidate Newt Gingrich floated the idea before a massive audience on Florida's space coast. Thousands lost jobs there when the space shuttle quit flying, so what he told them was music to their ears -- the promise of jobs once again, another space race.
Gingrich offered his vision of an ambitious new space program. "By the end of my second term," Gingrich said, "we will have the first permanent base on the moon and it will be American." The crowd erupted in applause.
And he was just getting started; by 2020, he said, there would be regular flights to Mars.
"I am sick of being told we have to be timid
and I'm sick of being told we have to be limited to technologies that are 50 years old," Gingrich said.
But what are the realities? Earth already has a space colony in Earth orbit, and it's been
expensive. It is the International Space Station (no one ever came up with a catchier name because that's a political hot potato). This orbiting outpost cost $100 billion to build over 10 years, after a decade of planning, with the combined efforts of 16 countries.
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