By:
John Twist
There
were many ideas said during the presidential campaign before the official
nominations of Obama and Romney. Some of them were better than others, but
occasionally, there’s one idea that’s so absurd, it’s hard to imagine that
someone running for president suggested it. Earlier this year in January, Newt
Gingrich stated, "By the end of my second term,
we will have the first permanent base on the moon and it will be
American."
First off, no, but I like your confidence and determination. I
don’t think he understands how money works. I also admire the fact that he says
his “second term” during the speech. (How’s that coming along by the way?) Building
the international space station cost over $100 billion and had the combined
effort of 16 countries. Building a base on the moon would cost substantially
more money than that. Also, the fact that he said that it would be American.
How can we build a base that is more technologically advanced than the International
Space Station. It took 16 countries to
make a small space station, so how can you build an entire base using only one?
Just to prove that I’m not making this up, here is the actual speech he gave in
Florida on January 23, 2012.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fau6Lr7_fQc
During George W. Bush’s presidential term, he stated that he had
plans to go back to the moon. The plan was called Constellation. During that
time, engineers designed feasible ways to successfully build a base. Even more
of a problem is the trouble NASA is in. Obama cancelled Constellation and put
in a different program. It doesn’t have a specific purpose or use. It’s simply
a program that involves space. Since the cancellation, NASA had lost thousands
of jobs, and in a tough economy, it’s hard to get those jobs back with a needed
budget of an additional $3 billion per year.
How could you even say that it would be permanent? To be
permanent, you need people to live there. He did say that he planned on having
13,000 people living on it in 2020. There are basic issues to this idea. First
and foremost: how would we breathe? Where would the air come from? I suppose we
could literally transport containers of air to the station. But then would we
have to pay for air? Would we literally have to pay to breathe? Another problem
is that the moon has no atmosphere. This makes it extremely vulnerable to solar
radiation. However, the biggest problem with having no atmosphere is that there
would be no protection from asteroids. The entire station could be wiped out or
severely damaged in an instant. It would be damaged everyday by microscopic
pebbles.
There are far more problems with having a base operational:
cost, food, transport, repairs, and jobs are just some of the many large
problems faced. I do enjoy the idea of space exploration, but it takes decades
to do these projects, not eight years. Also, with all of the domestic problems,
how could you even focus on the moon? I wish it would be happening because it
would be awesome to have a base on the moon, but it’s riddled with problems and
lack support and enthusiasm from the people and the government.
- "Newt Gingrich Promises Moon Base, Flights to Mars: A Reality Check - ABC News." ABCNews.com - Breaking News, Latest News & Top Video News - ABC News. N.p., n.d. Web. 6 Dec. 2012. <http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/newt-gingrich-promises-moon-base-flights-mars-reality/story?id=15449425>.
I do think that this station would be pretty awesome to basically live on the moon. I don't think that it would be a wise use of our money though at all. With Newt Gingrich's comment, he probably hurt having people follow him to be a presidential candidate. I don't know why he would say something that is so outrageous that we do not need to even worry about.
ReplyDeleteIt's very surprising that a candidate for president seriously thought he could pull this off. Yes we are very technologically advanced, but a moon base? Really? We need to be realistic. John said all the reasons, so I don't need to reiterate them, but it is just very surprising that he could think or even say such a thing. I also agree with Allen, this probably did hurt his chances of getting elected, or at least getting further in the election process. There are better uses for money. That's obvious, and it's obvious that a moon base in 8 years wouldn't really be possible.
ReplyDeleteAs cool as it sounds to be able to live on the moon, it is just too unrealistic. Like you said, we would have to pay to breath and during this tough economic time, who in their right mind would want to pay for something they can get free on Earth. It would cost too much and how do you get too and from the Earth? Most likely, your family will live in one place and you in the other, so how do you see them. We should put the money towards something more useful like maybe give some to one of the Executive Departments. It is a good goal, I just do not think that the United States is ready for it yet.
ReplyDeleteI think eventually we will build a base on the moon, but where things are at now with technology and money, it's just not going to happen. It would be cool if we built a moon base for the worst criminals to go like in the newest Men In Black movie. That's what came to mind when I saw the title of this post. Realistically it won't happen in the near future at all. It's something that the U.S can look forward to and plan for, so when it does happen, it's a huge accomplishment.
ReplyDeleteI completely agree that if there is an idea with this many questions being asked, then we should not go through with it. It would be awesome to live on the moon and get to explore a different style of living, but this plan is completely unrealistic and would not happen anytime soon. We have so much financial debt right now, that I think if we spent billions of dollars on this plan, we are wasting it on something we don't truly need. I understand that we want to make our mark and say that it is American, but again we are going to need many more countries to help us out if we actually were planning on going through with this. I definitely do not think that this should have been a platform for the election, especially because everyone it looking for a leader who will REALISTICALLY help the nation and come up with ideas for us to prosper.
ReplyDeleteI don't understand how someone could even think that that was possible in this day and age. There are so many financial problems that the United States is facing that spending that amount of money on a space station on the moon is not even a remote possibility. I hadn't even thought of the problems with asteroids, and that just creates more of a whole in his reasoning. All of the money that we spend could be wiped away in the blink of an eye. This is really just not something we should even consider building by ourselves at this time. We still need to explore space, but right now the problems within our own country is where our focus should lay.
ReplyDeletethis is an awesome idea, To think in my day that a childhoods star wars dream could start to develop. The thought of a moon base is a bit unpractical and even slightly a long stretch but i find that it opens up many new possibility like jobs, unexplored avenues in this biom could bring a new plan of reusable energy. as far as asteroids and radiation the possibility of creating a barrier and a strong protective force is potential. the down fall is the money it cost millions just to send one rocket. in the dept that we are how are we going to send 6,7 or even a hundred in to orbit.
ReplyDeleteBeau Blask
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ReplyDeleteWhen i first saw the title of the article, I could not believe my eyes. I thought to myself, "No way, there's no way we could build a base on the moon, that's just crazy!" But according to your post, it's actually feasible! Although it is an awesome idea, I agree in that it would just be way too much money. We are already in debt to china in the trillions, so how could we have to money to build a multibillion dollar moon base? Silly silly silly.
ReplyDeleteTo be honest, he wasn't thinking big enough. There is a non-profit organization called Mars-One that already has contracts to 27 space programs around the globe. Their mission is to send 4 people to start a colonization on Mars be 2023. Most may think its an impossible task, but its an entirely plausible and realistic mission. If you go to www.Mars-One.com you can read up about the whole plan. The moon is actually much easier task to do so. Its much closer, the soil does contain Magnesium, Carbon, Iron, Sulfur, and other elements for growing plants. the lack of atmosphere makes solar panels a much higher needed energy source, There are oxygen pockets underneath the crust (which is only 50 Km, very thin) and the mantle is mostly iron sulfur and nickel which are valuable resources for building needed constructions.
ReplyDelete