Mar 24 2009
Moon Colony - Why Bother?
For those of you that jumped the gun with my last post to jump from exploring the moon into making a colony: 
. Smarties! And I bet you’ll have no problem guessing whether I’m all for it or not. That’s right, I am.
Hava noted that making a colony on the moon, a real long-term self-sustaining facility, is no easy matter, despite what we’ve read in books or seen in movies. She ain’t lying. Making a self-sustaining colony on the moon is a complete pain in the whatsit. Everything we need (air, water, food) will either have to be brought from here and 100% recycled or made from unpromising natural ingredients. Power will need to be generated but, more than that, propulsion will have to be devised in order to make coming and going viable for the long run. (Some of you might note that these same technologies and capabilities could be damn useful right hear on the planet, too.)
Do I see it likely within my lifetime? Honestly, no. Bits and pieces of what you’d need for a long term commitment, maybe, but not all of it. But we don’t have to succeed soon to make pursuing the goal of a self-sustaining colony worthwhile today.
Why?
Because I do believe that human exploration is more important that climbing Mount Everest because it’s there. I don’t know what’s in our future, on this planet, and I know that getting to where we have other options if something cataclysmic would happen is going to be a long and painful road. I don’t know if we’ll ever need it, but I’d much rather have the option and not need it than find out we need it in thirty years, but the path to escape is fifty years long. But it’s more than that.
I believe that, if we are ever to do real exploring outside our solar system, we’d better know our way around space, we’d better know how to live on little or nothing and how to make the most of whatever natural resources we can find because we aren’t going to just stumble (conveniently) across dilithium crystals nor can we count on friendly (or touchy) natives to supply our wants. And I think that should be our goal. Our planet is precious and beautiful and wonderfully nurturing; I love the Earth. But I dream of exploring elsewhere, finding more places, more people, more systems than I can imagine today. I want that, if not for my children, for my children’s children.
The moon, as it was as an exploration test bed, is a perfect place to learn how to survive on very inhospitable land, how to use the resources we have to the fullest, how to grow food and create a living ecosystem out of very very little. All within easy reach of earth, in case of setbacks, but under some of the harshest terms. There is no welcome on the moon. To stake a permanent claim, we’re going to have to be brilliant and creative and resourceful, just as we’re going to need to do to travel beyond our sun’s influence. And, if we can beat her, we will not only have perfected any number of necessary steps that will set the foundation for future exploration, we’ll have proved that it’s possible, that man need not be fettered to this planet for all eternity.
Every day we wait or refuse to set our feet upon that path, success retreats at least one more day away.
Not that I’m opinionated or nothin’.
Seems like an awful lot involved to colonize the moon. I barely recycle the way I’m supposed to now.
Off topic–how do you feel about leaving entrecard?
Davida
I could not agree with you more. We have our own perfect little testing ground, conveniently located right outside our celestial back door. Let’s use it.
I haven’t really heard much about whether or not any dollars in Obama’s stimulus packages are heading over to NASA or any other agencies to promote further space oriented projects. It would seem like a no brainer to include some, as the trickle down to contractors and suppliers would definitely be a good thing. Can you go wrong on technology? Is there any big developments we can expect to see as a result of the stimulus?
As for Entrecard, I’ve already stopped my drops and I’m working on other means to drum up traffic. I’m going through my regular drop list to make sure I’m subscribed to all the sites I like (and don’t worry, you’re both on my list). I feel a little liberated today without having to do all those drops and just visiting sites I enjoy (and discovering some new ones).
There is something to be said for quality traffic rather than quantity. I really get far more comments than one would expect with my traffic stats. It makes me feel all special.
I never jumped on the entrecard bandwagon… I’m too old school. I much prefer the people to comment on my blog and just blip in and blip out, no matter how many more visits that adds up to.
I’m totally into the whole moon colony thing… I think living on the moon would be interestingly creepy… kind of like living in the Northwest, in Twilight country.