Expanding humainty into space is the future of new jobs and the world. Doing so will pay for itself once we begin to exploit the minerals and exotic materials out there. Expanding into space creates jobs and moves some of us off this rock so humanity can survive an extinction event here on earth should it ever occur again.

Before we dismiss the idea of a permanent colony on the surface of a moon, lets look at what all would be required and the possible benefits for all of man kind that could come from such, and the down falls of such.

The first problem is, as many would point out, the cost, and ultimately that space is not a friendly environment, in fact it is a hostile environment, quiet lethal. It could be a death sentence to any who would go and would not be easy to get back once there. Even getting there is a risk, as the people being propelled there are sitting on a giant bomb that could blow them up and apart.

But beyond that, beyond the cost, beyond the risks involved, there are benefits to such a task. The first would be that R&D would be forced to come up with innovative ways to accomplish this, from having to generate energy, so there is one positive aspect to such, to generating necessary resources, to even the logistics to actually doing such safely. It would mean that the technology would have to make significant progress to get there and then to sustain people for periods of time in such a hostile environment and allowing for them to safely return. There are the medical aspects, as the requirements for the health of the people would have to be taken into consideration as well. Every detail would have to be carefully considered, weighed, every outcome and possible malfunction thought about and factored in to this, and then once it is achieved, we will have started the slow steps to something far greater and further along than what we already have. When you consider the problems that the earth currently is going through, from energy to food, this could help out and be a significant milestone in the history of all mankind. And it would start to revialize a much needed sector of the US economy, namely jobs.

While it would be nice to think that the USA would be the first to establish such on the moon, reality is that it would require a multinational effort, thus maybe starting to find peace through a common goal that would benefit all mankind, not just one nation or another.

And such a feat would fall under the category of the Space treaty, that the US did sign and is obligated to follow through with, as did a majority of the countries around the world. In short, the moon belongs to no country or individual, but to all countries and individuals. Before anything can be brought back and used economically, it would have to be shared with the rest of the world.

But going beyond the legal aspects of this, a permanent base on the moon would be a good thing, as it would enable the scientist to figure out all of the bugs, problems and other issues, before setting a person or even a colony on another planet like Mars.

While I wish our space program had more teeth to it (and why the hell aren't we on Mars yet!), we have American children to feed. How about we have the 1st country without starving children, then work on the space race?

/TOA

More space exploration would be fantastic! I think a more honest candidate to lead the charge is mandatory.
If you thought the trillions of dollars lost prior to 9/11 by the pentagon was a big deal wait till they have a honey hole like the moon base to make money disappear! This is a frightful thought, Newt is no Kennedy, besides if John wanted a threesome he didn't call Jackie he told Marilyn to bring a friend!

Isn't there a treaty signed by at least fifty or so countries that prevents this sort of thing from happening? What's next? Declaring Antarctica a territory of the U.S.?

Lois said it best.

"Nine.....................................................................................................................Eleven"

Perhaps he'll make other outrageous claims like he invented the question mark, the internet or warp drive.