(Space Politics) Space hasn’t completely faded from the presidential campaign

By , Posted 02/03/12

Link: http://www.spacepolitics.com/2012/02/03/space-hasnt-completely-faded-from-the...

The conventional wisdom was that, after the Florida primary earlier this week, space policy would fade from the presidential campaign at least though the rest of the GOP primary race. By and large, that’s been the case: as the candidates have moved on to Nevada and other states, they’ve focused their attention on other issues, including the economy. But one leading candidate brought up space again yesterday, primarily as a cudgel against another.

“Ground Control to Major Newt: Nevada Needs Jobs, Not Moon Colony” reads the headline of a release from the Mitt Romney campaign. The release argues that Newt Gingrich is focusing on literally out-of-this-world ideas like a lunar settlement that the Romney campaign claims “could cost up to $500 billion” (based on a quote from a single article) while “Nevada is suffering from a jobs and housing crisis”. That lunar base idea, the Romney release argues, is the “latest in a string of expensive extraterrestrial initiatives” that would drive up government spending. Those initiatives largely predate Gingrich’s current presidential campaign, ranging from his “space mirror” concept from the 1980s to more modest proposals for space manufacturing and tourism tax credits from 2006 (which is sourced from an interview published in The Space Review) to, of course, his “Northwest Ordinance for space” lunar statehood act. The Romney campaign doesn’t discuss its views on space—or anything else—in the release: the apparent message is that a candidate who talks about housing on the Moon isn’t concerned with housing problems of voters in Nevada.