So, Newt Gingrich wants to build a moonbase. Bully for him. Being part of the Republican party, an organization not known for its support of grassroots science, it’s probably safe to say that Newt being a flagbearer for a base on the moon is more a political gambit than a scientific one. Back in the Sixties the United States got locked in a race with the USSR to be the first nation to set foot on the lunar surface. And what happened when they won? They promptly stopped sending astronauts there.
