Douglas MacKinnon: US needs a permanent moon base – So forget about going to Mars for now

Hmm... well, I'd have to profoundly disagree with this argument.

Interestingly, consider this:

SpaceX's upcoming Starship design, once it is flying, would be cheaper in delta-V fuel for it to go to Mars, rather than the moon!

That's because it will utilize aerobraking in Mars' atmosphere for slowing down... where as a moon landing requires burning fuel intensely, the whole way down.

FURTHER: Mars is pretty nicely loaded with accessible carbon. Carbon is VITAL to all life chemistry.

In contrast, the moon is extremely carbon poor.


But hey if Douglas MacKinnon is so dead set against Mars, then my message to him is quite simply:

Don't friggin go to Mars, Douglas!

(Most of us wouldn't want you on our Mars team anyways!)

Go to the moon instead, if that's what you want.

Essentially the technology being developed to take us to Mars now, while be able to be modified slightly and take us to the moon.

In the end, it's not really a question of "EITHER/OR".

We're not going to have to decide "Moon or Mars?!"

Rather, we'll end up commencing our colonization efforts of BOTH worlds, at approximately the same time, give or take a few years.

We'll also probably begin colonizing Mar's moons at the same time as well, establishing at least a few bases there as well, along with our first asteroid mining missions likewise beginning at around the same time.


In the end... all these missions are very simply awaiting cheap, heavy lifting access to space. That's pretty much it.

Once we achieve that, they'll all begin happening, probably quite rapidly.


FINALLY... you want the best space location to colonize? Why not try low-Earth-Orbit!?

With cheap heavy lifting ability, you could launch vast solar-panel arrays in Earth orbit, along with countless habitats, and vast food-growing farmings, along with industrial production facilities, much easier than colonizing either the moon or Mars!

(That said, I still have an emotional attachment to Mars personally... but hey ultimately I'm not picky: I'd be willing to live on a habitat in Low-Earth-Orbit, the moon, an asteroid, or Mars, no doubt about it!)

/r/space Thread Link - foxnews.com