Comments on: Revisiting Gingrich and space, possibly for the final time

By: DCSCA

DCSCA — Thu, 03 May 2012 00:34:20 +0000

‘Newt Gingrich – Moon President’ officially ‘suspended’ his presidential campaign this afternoon as his effort for the COP nomiination plummeted to Earth, sans drogue and main chure deploy. =yawn= And amidsts the long goodbye resume he verbally delivered was a nod to fellow traveller and ultra-right wing loon, bob Walker, and an admission that his now infamous ‘moon base’ comment was ill-advised. Too bad he can’t apologize for the SNLS skit, which will live on long after Newt has passed from the political scene.

By: PLAZ

PLAZ — Sun, 29 Apr 2012 16:09:26 +0000

The relationship between NASA and the Government is almost schizophrenic. We need to establish one program an follow it all the way trough. A solid program will take at least 10 years. That’s guaranteeing that at least two Precedents will be in charge trough it’s completion. So if one President comes on-board and cancels ideas of the other President then we are back to the drawing board. On a personal note I think we have to primarily focus on going to Mars. A base on the Moon will be nice, but kinda pointless because the same things can be achieved by sending space craft to High Earth Orbit (overcoming Moons gravity cancels the advantage out).

By: DCSCA

DCSCA — Sun, 29 Apr 2012 09:39:40 +0000

What timing. SNL’s April 28 telecast was a rebroadcast with the ‘Newt Gingruch, Moon President’ opening skit, as the players were at the WHCD in Washington. Nothing like refreshing the public memory with Newt’s foolishiness. And it was just as funny the second time ’round. Best line- ‘may divorce be with you.’ As noted earlier, the residue from Gingrich’s grandiosity has damaged public discourse on matters space for years. Tom Lehrer’s ditty on Von Braun lingers still… ‘Newt Gingrich- Moon President’ will always be a go-to punchline with this generation of MSM talking heads which pass for ‘journalists’ these days. Go away, Newt. Just go away.

By: Chris Castro

Chris Castro — Sun, 29 Apr 2012 03:54:40 +0000

@Coastal Ron;…..My, my, isn’t it a gloomy picture, just how many U.S. Presidents have never given a hoot about BEYOND LEO manned space initiatives! Think about it: Just George H. Bush & his hapless son W. Aside from them, you just have two Democrats: John Kennedy & Lyndon Johnson, who concurrently strived to see Project Apollo through. But in recent decades, it seems that NASA is better off in the hands of the Republicans, as the Democrats pander too much into this welfare-state-only paradigm; with zero, zilch, nada interest nor spirit for higher than LEO strides. So even if a hypothetical Romney administration is ice-cold at first, to the notion of renewed Lunar exploration—-and of course, THAT could later-on change, towards the later part of his first term—-in whatever case, to me, it will be satisfaction enough, that the low-earth-orbit-only administration of BO will have been brought to an end, and that a new cast of government characters will take the stage, and possibly make a different start of it all, with regard to NASA and its subsequent fate.

By: Coastal Ron

Coastal Ron — Sat, 28 Apr 2012 16:09:34 +0000

Chris Castro wrote @ April 28th, 2012 at 9:12 am

“Gingrich was right! He just shouldâ€™ve been keen enough to know who his audience was, and tailor-make his speech accordingly.”

He should have, but he didn’t. That’s Gingrich for you, and indicative of why he’s now an also-ran. Now if only he can find the few willing to pay off his abortive campaign debt…

“…and I even contributed to his campaign, some weeks ago.”

Oh, well, there you go.

“By contrast, the current President has proven to be nothing more than the â€˜low earth orbit presidentâ€™.”

Yes, he is in that exclusive club consisting of only Nixon, Ford, Carter, Reagan, Bush 41 and Clinton – i.e. everyone except Bush 43. Yep, Obama is sure unique on this issue.

Don’t you see the trend on this? Even earlier you pretty much hit the nail on the head when you said:

“The average joes out there in the general public never seem to care for REAL space explorationâ€”-they only want to be entertained by Hollywood & more delusional sci-fi.”

Yet you blame Obama for not ignoring the “average joes”. I imagine you’ll have the same feeling about Romney if he wins in November and doesn’t create a Moon program. Oh well…

By: Chris Castro

Chris Castro — Sat, 28 Apr 2012 13:12:15 +0000

Gingrich was right! He just should’ve been keen enough to know who his audience was, and tailor-make his speech accordingly. The average joes out there in the general public never seem to care for REAL space exploration—-they only want to be entertained by Hollywood & more delusional sci-fi. He should’ve gave a toned-down, sober, pragmatic, realistic-sounding speech promoting a concrete, manned Lunar Return and the establishment of an Antarctic-type base there. Only when he was certain to be speaking to the space-interest community, mainly, should he have uttered a single word about a possible colony to be emplaced there. Like if the National Space Society would interview him for “Ad Astra” magazine, or something along those lines. Newt Gingrich was my second favorite of the presidential aspirants, and I even contributed to his campaign, some weeks ago. By contrast, the current President has proven to be nothing more than the ‘low earth orbit president’. BO has certainly done his part, in assuring that Americans shall never leave low earth orbit, until way after 2020.

By: Googaw

Googaw — Fri, 27 Apr 2012 06:05:17 +0000

Planetary Resources

Fascinating. The usual NewSpace suspects (Anderson, Diamandis, & Co.) have decided to expand their model beyond the bounds of the traditional HSF cult. But the other ingredients of NewSpace are still here:

(1) Hype to heaven a futuristic “commercial” fantasy to attract legions of loud and gullible NewSpace fans.

(2) Hire some talented people who are good at working on NASA contracts, but NASA and traditional contractors wouldn’t pay them enough.

(3) Use the lobbying power of their legions of fans and their better paid talent to win the same old NASA contracts. (Here, what they will actually work on, if NASA pays them to do it, are humble little space telescopes and space probes — no robots will actually get their claws dirty).

Still, I have to give them credit, at least they’ve chosen a less cliched fantasy, something that when its time eventually comes will be far more useful than astronaut shrines. And they might actually accomplish some incremental progress in reducing the costs and increasing the functionality of space science and real space exploration. Just as Space-X, when all the hype about Mars greenhouses and Dragon astronauts and Falcon Heavy and flyback boosters oh my! dies down, seems to have accomplished some good incremental progress in bringing down launch costs for satellites.

By: Robert G. Oler

Robert G. Oler — Thu, 26 Apr 2012 22:13:38 +0000

Rand Simberg wrote @ April 26th, 2012 at 3:01 pm

“No one controls Newt.”

no more accurate words were ever typed…and congratulations you have just stated why “mr. newt” is unsuitable to be President or any high elective office….No one, including Newt control him RGO

By: Rand Simberg

Rand Simberg — Thu, 26 Apr 2012 19:01:28 +0000

It is just flabbergasting how Gingrichâ€™s deep political experience (and Muncyâ€™s too if he set Gingrich up to this) could lead to such a debacle

I’m quite confident that Muncy was just as frustrated about this as anyone. No one controls Newt.

By: Robert G. Oler

Robert G. Oler — Thu, 26 Apr 2012 16:28:54 +0000

Doug Lassiter wrote @ April 26th, 2012 at 11:33 am

Robert G. Oler wrote @ April 25th, 2012 at 11:28 pm
â€œNewt really could not get up and give a speech such as you suggestâ€¦â€

You replied:
Perhaps. But what he could have talked about was what was important to the nation, and how that shapes his beliefs about the challenges he sees and the investments heâ€™d try to make. ”

YEs exactly…the problem is that the GOP particularly that group which holds sway in a primary does not think that “visionary” policies…ie changing the nation toward some unseen future” (Star Treks “the undiscovered country”) is IMPORTANT.

Almost to a person what the non corporate wing of the party wants to do is go back to a past which they have created and had created for them, in their own minds.

Look at the support HERE and elsewhere for SLS and Orion…it is soley an attempt to recreate Apollo…there is all the internal mechanisms (heavy lift, one time use capsule etc all it lacks is the white shirts narrow black ties and totally white people)…but there is also all the external mechanisms…ie “The Chinese (code for Red Chinese) are going to go to the Moon and do all the things we didnt do with Apollo”, “they are going to do it with a heavy lift” etc…

and then look at the politics external to space of the people here who are arguing for this approach.

In almost every venue of the GOP we have people now arguing to go back to a past that they have created. Tony Perkins (Family research council) gave a speech where he picked and chosed from the 1960 census to prove that blacks were better off Then then now…the country is spending near record levels in constant dollars on defense (almost at 1944 levels) and the GOP wants to spend more…

these are all “go back” not go forward.

If Newt had any intention or ability (through Muncy) to address those issues he would have been drummed out of the party…I think he did have the ability (hence his initial response to Paul Ryan’s budget) but the fact that this blew up in his face stopped that.

Where I think Newt was surprised is that the pander did not work. He advocated something that he thought played to the way back machine..and Willard with the help of fools like Scott Pace and Griffin and the old Apollo crowd was able to shut that down…they want Apollo redone…

Newt has done enormous damage to human space endeavors…but it will heel itself if the GOP is flushed this election.

The GOP simply no longer has any real vision. RGO