Gingrich’s Path To Statehood For A Space Colony

By on January 27, 2012 in News 29

moo_img001Wondering if the Constitution still applies when gravity does not? Newt Gingrich believes so. Buzzfeed dug up Newt’s 1981 bill laying out rules of governance for a future 20,000-person U.S. colony on the moon or Mars. At the moment he’s being bashed from all sides for this, but I think it’s fantastic:

Yesterday Newt Gingrich revealed his “weirdest idea ever” — to provide a path to statehood for a hypothetical lunar colony.

With the help of the skilled research librarians in the Library of Congress Law Library, BuzzFeed tracked down the bill, which Gingrich called the “Northwest Ordinance for Space,” or formally the “National Space and Aeronautics Policy Act of 1981.”

“The Congress declares that the United States is committed to the expansion of free people and free institutions into space,” the bill stated, calling for an array of near earth and solar space travel vehicles to be completed by 2010.

It also called for the creation of “an environmentally acceptable space to Earth power capability that is economically competitive with power generation on Earth,” by the year 2000.

Read More: Buzzfeed

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  • Anarchy Pony

    Aren’t there international treaties against this sort of thing?

    • Hadrian999

      treaties are only as good as the ability of the signers to enforce them

  • MoralDrift

    Space colonies, when they come into being, must firmly seek independence from earth governance at the first prudent moment, for the good of mankind

    • Anarchy Pony

      But make sure you take control of the space elevator, a crucial strategic choke point. That or be prepared to destroy it in the event it is taken by the Transnational Authority. 

    • Hadrian999

      odds are they will be totally corporately owned and operated, with the corporation in firm control of everything necessary for life, better not be late on the atmosphere bill

      • Liam_McGonagle

        You have to admit, though, that an extra-terrestrial colony makes an ideal dumping ground for undesirables and slave labor.

        • Andrew

          Or somewhere for the elite to go to in the case of nuclear war.

        • Hadrian999

          for any kind of industry to be viable there would have to be a total paradigm shift on space travel, current methods are too expensive with too much of a restriction on mass, not to mention the need to find a fix for the health problems caused by extended low-g, newt is out of his mind if he thinks this is doable in 10 years

          • Anarchy Pony

            Ridiculously expensive and energy intensive, as well as dangerous. And anything beyond the moon would require the most complex and powerful vehicle human engineering has ever built. And the more complex something gets the more likely it is to suffer a catastrophic failure cascade. Given the current state of affairs on earth, it’s likely that space colonization will not ever occur. Not unless things change drastically.

        • Tuna Ghost

          It’ll be the new Australia, except without a native population to destroy in order to make it fit for white people.  Or the alarming number of dangerous animals.  

    • DeepCough

      Space colonies better start investing in giant mechanical combat automata if the “good of mankind.”

      • Anarchy Pony

        I can’t help but think the Japanese will have an edge here.

      • MoralDrift

        Now your talking! I was thinking of the Gundam series

        • Jin The Ninja

          I was thinking Planetes, but Gundam adds a certain giant robot battle appeal…

          • Anarchy Pony

            I loved Planetes. 

          • Jin The Ninja

            t’was great. the middle bit was a tad slow, but the ending more than made up for it! what are you watching now?

          • Anarchy Pony

            No, I’ve seen it before. Maybe I should order it from netflix again… 

          • Jin The Ninja

            i meant what other series are you watching currently?

            any good recomends for a homie?

          • Anarchy Pony

            Oh, hmm, I dunno, I haven’t seen much anime I like recently. And for regular shows, I am into 30 rock lately, also, I’ve been watching old episodes of Stargate SG1, I like it so far, and I kind of like the overall premise. There is also the dead show Jericho, which is one of my favorites, it’s about a town in Kansas that loses all outside contact after a nuclear blast appears over the horizon. It was really good but it died the death of low ratings. I really am not actually watching much on TV other than new 30 rock eps and Archer, just slowly working my way through netflix’s instant streaming. 

          • Jin The Ninja

            double post.

  • Domm

    Yes, no nation can claim ownership of the moon.  However, possession is 9/10th the law.  Should an independent colony via statehood from any nation in the world, who would stop it?

  • DeepCough

    I’d expect this sort of thing from Slim Pickens. “We got to get to the Moon before the Ruskies do!”

  • marklar_primus

    Unfair. Why should the constitution be valid on the moon when it means jack shit here?

  • FlingingMyOwnPoo

    We could declare world peace tomorrow…fix the economy…solve world hunger and poverty…cure every disease known to mankind. And the day after that, Yellowstone could erupt. Or we could get hit by a fucking asteroid. I don’t care who the first nation is to establish a permanent base on Mars and/or the moon. Someone just needs to fucking do it already. Make it work, you ignorant fucking monkeys! 

    • MoralDrift

      could simply not agree more

  • Simiantongue

    Gingrich can only think of the exploration of space in terms of Manifest Destiny. My surprise O meter didn’t move a jot.

  • http://www.facebook.com/dharmasanctuary Dharma Sanctuary

    For some reason our space colonies and space travel plans got sidetracked.  It makes you wonder what happened in the intervening years.  Did the ETs tell us to stay the hell off the moon and mars?  Did teleporting replace the need for space ships?  Did the military/industrial cabal decide to keep the whole matter under wraps instead of air the subject publicly? There is an answer to this, folks.

    We need to keep digging at this, because it will help release the floodwaters of lies and disinformation that is hemming in our lives