re: #30 Naso Tang

Phil Plait has a good take down of this moon idea within 8 years, even while he and most of us think it is a valid goal. The bottom line is simply that financially it would destroy NASA by leaving nothing else funded, and technically we couldn’t do it the way he describes in that time frame anyway.

Typical Newt pandering.

Exactly, the level of funding behind the space program just to put the initial Mercury astronauts into orbit, let alone put Apollo 11 on the Moon, would turn most budget cutters hair white. And that was on top of the funding increases to the military for the build-up and Vietnam, domestic programs, etc.

So to hear Newt say that we could build a permanent installation on the Moon in 8 years, relying largely on the private sector, while being able to cut taxes and spending, is the worst sort of pandering imaginable.