Moon Base Alpha

Ground Control to Major Rob!

Newt Gingrich was laughed right off the ballot back in 2012 when he stated one of his programs as president would be a moon base by the end of his second term.

A moon base.

Hahahahaha—

Actually, that single promise alone almost won my vote.  What?  I’m a card carrying member of the Nerd Nation.  A moon base gets my Van Allen Belt all tingly.

Turns out Gingrich isn’t lost in a 1950s pulp science fiction story.  Japan and India plan to have a lunar base by 2030.  Russia has plans to have one between 2027-32.  Or maybe they’ll just foment a rebellion in one modules of the Japanese base and annex it after a “voter backed appeal” by their “Russian expats”.

The moon, after all, has historically been a part of Russia.

Why are you blaming me?  I gave you PLENTY of time
to build a Moon Base!

Saying the term “lunar base” sounds somewhat laughably ludicrous.  It’s almost an oxymoron, like “jumbo shrimp”, or “reasonable Facebook discussion”.  But there are actually some excellent reasons for extending our reach in a more permanent way than the dozens of manned scientific and military satellites we’ve relied on over the years.  A lunar base would provide an excellent place to launch new explorations of our universe.  It would allow a kind of beachhead between the Earth and Mars.  It could replace many of the more expensive, and ultimately doomed, orbiting scientific platforms like the International Space Station.  Observation alone, especially for those nasty Extinction Level Events Hollywood likes to feature so often, would be more than a reasonable justification.

Discoveries of water on the moon’s surface, something theorized but previously unknown, make a lunar base that much more possible.

Also, we’ll have a place where aliens can stop and grab a bite to eat and use the restroom on the way to more interesting parts of the galaxy, and they can stop leaving their litter and graffiti all over our planet.  If nothing else, this will save us from yet another Kingdom of the Crystal Skull fiasco.