Water on the Moon

[StarryEyed]

Meh. Mars is still the place to go.

That's true from an exploration standpoint but not from a practical one. I can see where a manned expedition to Mars has a certain "sex appeal" but a practical moonbase able to produce rocket fuel and drinking water so it doesn't need to be lifted (at great cost) from Earth's steep gravity well will open up the entire solar system. It would make extensive trips beyond Earth orbit much more practical.

 

[Alpha_Geek]

It'll depend on if it gets cheaper to ship consumables to a moonbase crewed and equipped to make fuel than it is to ship the same fuel from dirtside.

The water can make colonization easier, and as long as there is an overall savings for as long as the colony isn't self-sufficient, exploration of the solar system cheaper.

 

[StarryEyed]

Yes, the moonbase will need to be largely self-sufficient but that's exactly the goal I see as being far more important than simply launching epic, exploratory expeditions that don't really accomplish much. Self-sufficiency in space establishes us there for good. It is our bridge to becoming a true interplanetary society.

 

[Mysterion]

Meh. Mars is still the place to go.

Mars ain't the kind of place to raise a kid. In fact, it's cold as hell. And there's no one there to raise them, if you dig.

 

[Anwar]

At least turn the Moon into a manufacturing site, maybe stuff created in a less than 1g environment would have different properties to things made on Earth.

 

[Samurai8472]

Moonbase is possible?

Better get crackin..we're a bit late..

OOOH!! will it have serious design flaw in the form of a trench that's 2 meters across and if you shoot a laser down this trenck the base blows up.

 

[mike.shine]

The moon doesn't have the proper suitable environment for humans to live.

better try another planet

 

[sojourner]

That's the brilliant thing about us humans. We can build suitable environments.

 

[Samurai8472]

Riker- the moon looks alot different in the 24th century. On a clear day like this you can see lake armstrong and new berlin.

 

[sojourner]

But where are the Amazon Women?

 

[Alpha_Geek]

Meh, you just want Snu-snu like Frye and Zapp. LOL

 

[Evil Ezri]

If there was going to be a Moon base, I do not really see it until 2050 to 2075.

 

[MANT!]

Well a Lunar station is probable around 2025..then a permanently inhabited moon base around 2050 to 2075..if not just the US, then an international one most likely..

1st Lunar Station would probably look similar to the following..

The Moon base itself could look like this..

A Lunar Colony is probably far off..say 200 years or so (think America after Discovery by Columbus to the founding of most of the Spanish and other European colonies)

 

[sojourner]

200 years? That seems a bit conservative going from having a base in only 40 years.

Besides, Elon Musk won't wait that long.

 

[Admiral Buzzkill]

I'm sure the Chinese will make good use of all this.

 

[Mike Farley]

The moon doesn't have the proper suitable environment for humans to live.

better try another planet

Well, since there aren't any worlds in the solar system that are suitable for human life, we might as well start with the closest and spread out from there.

 

[MANT!]

The moon doesn't have the proper suitable environment for humans to live.

better try another planet

Well, since there aren't any worlds in the solar system that are suitable for human life, we might as well start with the closest and spread out from there.

Exactly as Werner Von Braun intended..