I like the idea of space exploration. I like the idea of Lunar or Martian colonies. (Interesting question as to whether those those adjectives should be capitalized or not; I guess so, since “Luna” and “Mars” are place names, and therefore proper nouns.) Unfortunately, one can more or less prove that, for the moment, these ideas are silly, impractical, and non-starters.
If we were, as a people, at all serious about colonizing remote and inhospitable environments, we wouldn’t need to leave Earth’s gravity well. There’s a whole hostile, unexplored, unexploited continent right here: Antarctica. Who knows what mineral wealth waits there for the country ambitious enough to find and take it (and bold enough to ignore the enfeebling Antarctic Treaty System)?
No one knows, because no one’s really looked, because it, apparently, is just too much work. If we can’t send an oil rig south of 60 degrees, we’re definitely not going to be establishing any Moon bases any time soon.
As a bonus, here’s a quick, non-exhaustive list of ways in which Antarctica is more hospitable than either the Moon or Mars:
- Solar-radiation-blocking magnetic field
- Survivable temperatures
- Normal gravity
- Air pressure
- Oxygen
- 28000 times closer than Mars (furthest)
- 4100 times closer than Mars (closest)
- 27 times closer than the Moon
- Reachable by diesel freighter
- We’re there right now
