When I was growing up, I was captivated by the Apollo missions and their visitations to the Moon. It was to lead up the establishment of a base on our satellite as a jumping off point to the other planets. Movies showed us what living on the Moon would be like and how they would be built. The science fiction TV shows of the time, Space: 1999 and U.F.O., showed moon bases, where people lived and worked. At the time, I knew I would never get to go to the Moon, but I had hopes that my children would. Well...
The Moon has taken a back seat. Now, everything is focused on Mars. I have thought up a few reasons why the Moon should be colonized before there was an attempt to land Man on Mars. I'm not a planetary scientist or an astronaut so don't get hyped up if I make an error.
Obviously, the Moon is close. It is possible to reach the Moon in nine hours. The New Horizons probe made that trip. It was unmanned and it would take a manned vessel under ninety-six hours. If there was a human presence on the Moon and an emergency arose, it is possible to mount a rescue operation before the crew was lost. Resupply would not be an issue either. Unmanned vehicles have been supporting the International Space Station for years and the Soviets supplied Mir the same way. This is a scientific principle that is well known and completely doable.
The Moon is an excellent science platform. Because there is no atmosphere on the Moon, it would make a great location for telescopes operating through all the bandwidths. The lack of atmosphere would be good for telescopes using the visible part of the spectrum. Wouldn't the Moon make an fantastic place to use radio telescopes. On the dark side, there would no interference from radio noise from nearby sources. Since the Moon is inhabited, any repair work that was needed for equipment would be easily made. SETI would benefit, also, because the radio noise leaking from Earth would be negligible.
Defense. The Moon is practical for a defensive platform. One would automatically assuming that I mean 'aliens.' As far as we know, there is no need to defend Earth from an 'alien' attack. Naturally, that could change without warning. I was really thinking of using the Moon to detect near Earth asteroids. Once again, because of it's lack of atmosphere, the Moon would be an ideal location for the detection of near Earth Objects. If necessary, the Moon would be a good platform for mounting an operation to prevent earthly impacts.
The catch? It would be expensive. Maintaining living conditions on one or several moon bases. It has been proposed that Moon contains the requirements for the production of energy, atmosphere and water. In time, a moon base would be able to manage it's own existence for ordinary subsistence. The base would still have to be supplied from Earth, but only monthly (eventually).
Small steps. All explorers have a base between the starting point and destination. There has always been the 'last outpost' in human exploration. I think of the frontier forts of the Americas westward expansion. On the journey west, pioneers left their homes and headed for the starting points like St Joseph and Independence, Missouri. As Americans moved west, they built new starting points.
The Moon should be the new starting point for Man's outward movement into space.
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