Captain Seafort wrote:Monroe wrote:And to answer your earlier statement, many people think the Moon is a necessary stepping stone towards Mars. Like on the Moon you could build a larger rocket than you could on Earth.
I don't think the Moon as a construction site is the key reason, so much as to gain experience. The atmosphere of the two (or lack thereof) is almost identical, so training could take place there in much more realistic conditions than could be achieved on Earth.
Aye, that's what I said in a debate with someone else via my dads facebook. this person claimed that we do not need to practice building on the moon as we can build self-contained environments on Earth; she referenced Biosphere 2 citing that even tho it failed we learned a lot. My reply was that building a self-contained biosphere on Earth is one thing, on the moon or Mars it's something else. Ah yes, here is the exchanged:
Some Lady wrote:
Besides, there's no reason to actually go to the Moon just to develop self-sustaining habitats when you can do all that work right here in a much ... See Moresafer environment (i.e., Biosphere 2 out in Arizona, which was actually a private venture -- yes, they failed, but they learned a lot in the process).
I wrote:"here's also a difference between building/developing something on Earth, in an environment we've evolved in, are used to and know how to operated and an environment with 1/3 or 1/6th of our gravity and no appreciable atmosphere to provide air or a magnetic field to protect from solar radiation. While things like Biosphere 2 are a fantastic idea, ... See Moreif the biosphere were to fail or the building were to collapse there'd still be a nitrogen-oxygen atmosphere outside to breath; there is still a magnetic field protecting from hard radiation, there are still plants and animals outside of the biosphere to survive on. That's a little different from trying to created a foothold of life on a Barren Heap of Rock."
