In article ,
Hop David wrote:

Joe Strout wrote:

but, as Robert Zubrin notes, it does seem to be the best place to set
up a colony.

All other factors (such as distance and travel time) being equal,
certainly so.

But those other factors are most decidedly NOT equal. It may still be a
great place to set up a colony one day, but definitely not the best
place to set up our *first* colony.

You like the moon, right?

Yep, it's true, we're very lucky to have such a large moon -- we're
practically a double planet, so we can make our first offworld colonies
right next door instead of halfway (or more!) across the solar system.
Moreover it's a great source of raw materials for orbital colonies, too.
If I believed in an intelligent Creator, I'd be thanking him for this
boon of a moon which so obviously means we're meant to colonize space.

To try and pass it up and dash directly for the planets is just
foolishness (backed by mostly foolish arguments, as we're seeing in this
thread).

,------------------------------------------------------------------.
| Joseph J. Strout Check out the Mac Web Directory: |
| http://www.macwebdir.com |
`------------------------------------------------------------------'