Why does newt gingrich want to go to the moon

Outer space belongs to all of us. Our use of it should reflect underlying notions of cooperation and shared benefit, which must remain as the cornerstones in this next phase of human achievement. International law has a crucial part to play in this regard. Portsmouth Climate Festival — Portsmouth, Portsmouth. Edition: Available editions United Kingdom. Become an author Sign up as a reader Sign in. Steven Freeland , Western Sydney University.

Space travel Moon US politics. Get our Space Newsletter. Sign up to receive the week's news in space. Please enter a valid email address. Please attempt to sign up again. Sign Up Now. An unexpected error has occurred with your sign up. Please try again later. Check here if you would like to receive subscription offers and other promotions via email from TIME group companies. You can unsubscribe at any time.

By signing up you are agreeing to our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy. Thank you! For your security, we've sent a confirmation email to the address you entered. Click the link to confirm your subscription and begin receiving our newsletters. If you don't get the confirmation within 10 minutes, please check your spam folder. Related Stories. Engineers have already designed the rockets, the spacecraft, the rovers, and inflatable habitats -- all prepared after President George W. Bush proposed in to go back to the moon.

Obama canceled Constellation and called for yet another program, one which isn't fully funded, and has no specific destination -- perhaps a passing asteroid and eventually an expedition to Mars. Planners at NASA must have whiplash trying to keep up with the changes each administration throws at them. But no private company has yet put astronauts in Earth orbit. Gingrich is among many who have accused NASA of becoming bureaucratic and overly cautious.

But the reality remains that space exploration is difficult and dangerous, and expensive as well. The potential of exploring and living on the moon excites many -- including former astronaut Steve Lindsey, who commanded the last flight of the space shuttle Discovery.

Could we go to Mars? But even NASA admits it would be too expensive for one country to do alone and we don't have the technology yet to make it happen. A round trip to Mars, barring a major advance in rocket technology, could take two years. NASA engineers and planners are already working on that mission in a theoretical sense.