Aiming for the moon
During election campaigns, politicians tend to promise the moon if elected. But Newt Gingrich, who aims to become the Republican nominee for US President, has taken a literal step forward — he promised to set up a base on the moon. Like all canny politicians, he offered this out-of-the-world proposal in Florida, where thousands are employed with the floundering US space programme.
Whatever the criticism this draws, there’s a certain ambitious ring to Mr Gingrich’s tall promise. Pledging jobs and economic growth is mundane, almost every politician dishes out the same formula. Setting up a base on the moon and creating jobs there is romantic, if nothing else. And it’s not as outlandish as it sounds either, as Nasa has a blueprint ready and could get it up and running at short notice. There’s still the problem of funds, though: the project cost of billions of dollars is more than the cash-strapped US government can afford.
Where the plan starts getting unhinged is his idea that a permanent moon base should be “American”, and could even become the 51st US state! That kind of lunar nationalism flies in the face of global cooperation in the space arena — space doesn’t belong to any single nation and the days when explorers could walk into a land mass, subdue the natives and take over are long gone. Not surprisingly, Mr Gingrich’s proposal sounds little more than grandstanding; and it’s a fair bet he too will forget about it once he leaves Florida.
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