NTUF released its 2012 GOP Presidential Candidate Spending Analyses last week. One of, if not the most, memorable items was Newt Gingrich's proposed new space initiative. Theoretically this American moon colony and propulsion development plan would create a bustling hub of industry on Earth's moon. According to Speaker Gingrich:
“By the end of my second term, we will have the first permanent base on the moon and it will be American. We will have commercial, near-earth activities that include science, tourism, and manufacturing that are designed to create a robust industry precisely based on the model of the development of the airline industry of the 1930s… And by the end of 2020, we will have the first continuous propulsion system in space capable of getting to Mars in a remarkably short time…”
NTUF estimates this ambitious initiative to bring democracy to the moon would cost about $20 billion over the first five years of operation. However, that would only cover the cost of the actual lunar base; the cost of the propulsion system is yet to be determined since much of the technology has yet to actually be developed.
NTUF found that his overall budget plan would save $146.165 billion. You can view the full report for Newt Gingrich HERE.