Sorry, but Newt's 'Moon colony' proposal is the best idea that's come out of the clown car.

[onehandle]

If he had put it in terms of exploration and not mentioned the Moon, he would have come off much better.

The problem is that we've already been to the Moon, and historically it's tied to insanity and JFK.

So he came off sounding like an ass.

I want us in Space. In orbit. On the Moon. On Mars and beyond.

Of course my generation was promised flying cars, so up is all I know.

[TheWraith]

1. Dollar for dollar, space is one of the best investments we ever made.

Despite the derogatory attention it usually gets as a waste of money, there's very little in the history of the past century that's done more to advance and improve the planet than the the technologies derived from the space program.

[NRaleighLiberal]

2. Agreed...mostly because it will be a distant place we can send Republicans!

[KamaAina]

5. Isn't Mars already a Red planet?

[NRaleighLiberal]

8. .....

[MADem]

3. Yes, we could ship all the haters there....I kid, I kid!!!!!!!

I really like space exploration as well. I do realize that many generations after us, folks are probably gonna have to move. I suppose it's my tendency to plan ahead that wants to me to invest in something that perhaps won't give a major return for quite some time and that I likely will not live to see.

Of course, we often see practical additions to our culture and lifestyle as a consequence of these sorts of efforts early on... I did enjoy TANG (ghastly stuff, but hey, it was "new&quot when it first came out!

[n2doc]

4. No the problem is that he has no intention of funding it

Just like W with his 'mission to mars'. All a bunch of hot air. Newt had absolutely no plan to pay for something that would cost, literally, a trillion dollars.

[onehandle]

6. Of course. I said the idea was good, not the man. Newt is a flim-flam man. nt

[Ebadlun]

7. It's a fine ideal

Just hilarious coming from a self-appointed deficit-slasher and tax-cutter.

An incentivised private sector? Ok, but just how big would these 'prizes' have to be to make it worth setting up the GoogleBase?

[mr_liberal]

9. I like his idea of "prizes" for private

people or companies to compete for. I think that would create a lot of excitement and it would cost the govt less money.

I think a mix of that and NASA would work well.

Moon colonies does seem kind of far fetched so he would have been better off not being so specific . Its probably not as far off as people think though.

[JI7]

10. but you have to raise taxes on wealthy if you are serious about it

that's the problem with him.

[Bicoastal]

11. My dad has been an Aerospace engineer for 40 years.

Hughes, then Boeing, then JPL at CalTech. He's still not retired, and he loves outer space more than any person I know.

So during a recent visit, I asked him about Newt's proposal, and he thinks it's the dumbest idea he'd ever heard. "Besides the fact that there's no way that any country could possibly put a colony on the moon in 8 years? The fact is, there's nothing humans could possibly do on the moon that machines couldn't do more accurately, efficiently, and cheaply. Plus, colonization suggests readily available resources, and the moon has absolutely none. It's like wanting to build a human colony at the very bottom of the ocean--even if we COULD figure out how to do it, why the heck would we want to?"

Some places were meant to be explored and then left alone.