Over the weekend, The Orlando Sentinel reported that NASA is
considering building a hovering outpost beyond the Moon at L-2
(Lagrangian point 2) that will be a 'gateway' to serve as a
point for launching human missions to Mars and asteroids. The
buzz among the space-related social medias ranged from "this is
the greatest idea ever" to "this is make-work for the Space
Launch System, (NASA's new rocket.)" The newspaper's report
cited a White House briefing given in September by NASA
Administrator Charlie Bolden, but said "it's unclear whether it
has the administration's support. Of critical importance is the
price tag, which would certainly run into the billions of
dollars." As always, money is the real issue with any grand
ideas that anyone at NASA may have. And NASA has now officially
responded to the The Sentinel's report and said… well, actually
they didn't really say much at all. Here's the NASA statement:
"NASA is executing President Obama's ambitious space exploration
plan that includes missions around t