In my article Luna, The Jilted Wife: Leaving The Moon For Mars, I take a lighthearted look at how we have turned our attentions to colonising Mars whilst ignoring the fact that the moon has many more advantages.
Whilst the prospect of human beings setting foot on another planet other than Earth, is mouthwatering to say the least, we can't ignore the very practical reasons to concentrate our efforts closer to home.
So let us now try and make the case for going to the moon and putting Mars on hold.
Familiarity
In my article I likened the moon to an ex-wife or girlfriend. Just like an ex, we are familiar with the moon, we know what to expect there are no surprises waiting for us there.
By now we have mapped the entire moon. With the succesful Jade Rabbit mission, that now makes three nations who have sent personnel and equipment to the moon, in America, Russia and now China.
Proximity
The moon being close is something that should be a major factor in any future colonisation discussions. Having an outpost that we can get to in a few days means that we'll be able to send extra supplies, change personnel, and most importantly send rescue missions should things go wrong.
The changing of personnel should not be overlooked as something trivial. Being able to have colonists who lived on the moon in 6-12 month shifts would be a huge advantage over Martian colonists.
The time taken journeying to Mars means that even missions which spent minimal time on the planet, would still entail a two year plus journey.
Still looking at the human side of things, live communication with the earth is possible from the moon. Not so from Mars, as light takes around half an hour to reach the planet.
Resources
Right now the human race relies on the planet Earth for 100% of its resources. Therefore any space missions have to take everything they will need along the way. This includes oxygen and water, and of course fuel.
The moon has water, Mars does as well of course, however it will not be able to be used to the same effect.
The moon was created around four billion years ago in the great bombardment. When a huge asteroid collision broke off some of the earth and created Luna, the moon we see today.
This means that it is made up of the same stuff earth is, hence with a bit of cultivation it's not too far a jump to imagine that we will be able to use some of that water to grow crops. The soil on Mars is not suitable for growing food suitable for human consumption.
Water isn't the only resource on the moon, there is also a rich supply of Helium3, the pseudo-isotope of helium, which can be used as fuel.
Being able to acquire fuel somewhere other than the earth is absolutely huge, and would truly accelerate us forwards in our quest to colonise not just the moon and mars, but the entire system.
Finally we have the resources left behind by the many missions to the moon. Some of those vehicles and probes could be recycled to go with either life sustaining equipment and/or spacecrafts. Again this lightens the payload on future missions and give us the opportunity to launch from the moon's microgravity saving huge amounts of fuel.
Future Missions
It has been suggested that we may one day visit our nearest star using the von Neuman method. Whereby we launch a small probe and then use a laser to accelerate it up to around ten percent light speed, getting us to Proxima Centurai in around forty years. The most obvious site for such a laser would be the moon.
If we did have such a thing, then it would surely be better to build such a potential precise piece of machinery on the moon. Rather than risk damaging a fully assembled machine whilst launching from the earth.
Collaboration
As mentioned above China are already looking to mine the moon for Helium3 and I don't see the other superpowers allowing them to be the only ones. If this is the case we will have a sizeable human interest on the moon anyway, so why not just start colonising the place?
Any attempts at colonising the moon will require a huge effort whereby many nations will be involved. This could well lead to levels of collaboration between nations that is completely unseen on earth.
It is nice to think that the moon could come to represent a group of nations that is truly united. So together let us go forward united under the goal of exploration and advancement.
Further Reading
We Can Colonize the Moon by 2022—and for Less than the Cost of an Aircraft Carrier - futurism.com
NEXT I WILL MAKE THE CASE FOR MARS, HOWEVER FOR NOW DO YOU THINK THAT THERE IS BENEFIT COLONISING THE MOON OVER MARS? IS THE FACT THAT WE COULD START DOING THIS STRAIGHTAWAY TO BIG AN APPEAL TO IGNORE?
AS EVER, LET ME KNOW BELOW!
Title image: Alex Baber on Unsplash
