Newt Gingrich has received considerable ridicule and flack for his statement that we would have a permanent base on the Moon by the end of his second term as President, and when the Moon attained 13,000 permanent settlers, it could become another U.S. state.
I say, good for Gingrich for thinking so big. We need more of that. One of the reasons our efforts in space have stagnated is because no one after JFK had the requisite vision to see us get off this planet in a sustained way.
The fact is that we are citizens of the cosmos, not just this Earth. We'll never truly understand who we are, what we're doing here, from a vantage point stuck down here on this planet. Carl Sagan got this. Isaac Asimov understood this. Unfortunately, not enough politicians and Presidents.
Although I expect to vote for Barack Obama in this election, as I did in 2008, I was never happy with his weak position on space. Obama has been no better on space than his predecessors after JFK, and in some ways worse.
Conversely, I'm not likely to vote for Gingrich (though, if I were a Republican, I would over Romney). I get that he's presumtuous about the second term. I get that he's grandiose. But sometimes, as in the grandeur of space, that could be a good thing.
I say, good for Gingrich for thinking so big. We need more of that. One of the reasons our efforts in space have stagnated is because no one after JFK had the requisite vision to see us get off this planet in a sustained way.
The fact is that we are citizens of the cosmos, not just this Earth. We'll never truly understand who we are, what we're doing here, from a vantage point stuck down here on this planet. Carl Sagan got this. Isaac Asimov understood this. Unfortunately, not enough politicians and Presidents.Although I expect to vote for Barack Obama in this election, as I did in 2008, I was never happy with his weak position on space. Obama has been no better on space than his predecessors after JFK, and in some ways worse.
Conversely, I'm not likely to vote for Gingrich (though, if I were a Republican, I would over Romney). I get that he's presumtuous about the second term. I get that he's grandiose. But sometimes, as in the grandeur of space, that could be a good thing.