15. Newt Gingrich's Moon Colony

Recently Newt Gingrich announced a plan, if elected, to establish a colony on the moon by 2020. This colony would then be named a the 51st state. There are a couple of issues with his proposal.

"Not only is Newt's plan for lunar statehood completely insane—it's also against the law!"

 "The exploration and use of outer space shall be carried out for the benefit and in the interests of all countries and shall be the province of all mankind;"

"Gingrich's plan for an emphatically American moon colony and resultant 51st Moon State violates the Outer Space Treaty of 1967, which was pitched by the USSR, UK, and USA."

"Outer space shall be free for exploration and use by all States;Outer space is not subject to national appropriation by claim of sovereignty, by means of use or occupation, or by any other means;"

So the only way he could fulfill this is if other countries also joined in with the colony and that it would not be named as the 51st state.

The other issue is the cost.

"In these economically straitened times, with Congress hell-bent on cutting every federal programme going, finding the money to send a new generation of Nasa astronauts to the moon will remain an impossible dream."

Mitt Romney has won yet another primary, with Newt Gingrich trailing by over 200,00 votes, equating to about 15%.

Sources:
1. http://gizmodo.com/5879917/newt-gingrichs-fantasy-moon-base-is-illegal
2. http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/technology-blog/newt-gingrich-promises-build-moon-colony-2020-u-
2 11103078.html
3. http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/blog/2012/jan/26/newt-gingrich-moon-base-dream?newsfeed=true
4. https://www.google.com/search?sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8&q=florida+primary+results