* Earth rescue is a decent possibility for a failure
* Earth resupply allows just in time planning
* Shorter feedback Earth teleoperation
* There are important project management things to learn in setting up a colony that can be reused in subsequent colonies–set up the cheaper one first may pay for the first one with the savings on the more expensive one
* Proof that we can do a colony before we do a further colony that requires more thought and planning to be successful–i.e. enable the second colony at all
* Earthers will be able to see the colony directly with their own eyes
* Quicker crew rotation
* Quicker tourism opportunities
* Cheaper stuff to do; until indigenous self-sustaining population is around, skills and equipment will have to be imported
– Cheaper to develop a movie studio
– Cheaper to develop lunar sports
– Cheaper to develop lunar ballet
– Cheaper to develop lunar radio astronomy
* Asteroid colonization skills to give options for future colonization destinations
* Tactical high ground for cis-lunar defense hi-jinx
* Good testbed for space elevator before deployment to Earth
* Cool TV (see the Space Review)
* Resource and energy options if our energy appetite increases (as our nuclear appetite doesn’t) or carbon appetite decreases
* Faster bootstrap to Antartica level of commerce, Alaska level of commerce
* Spur to point-to-point Earth rocket economics
* Fastest politically feasible viable off-Earth gene bank
* Spur to new industrial uses of vacuum
– mass driver/mag lev
– flywheel
* Artificial gravity track
* Radiation management
* Higher population, more accessible frontier
* More spirit of freedom on Earth sooner
* Harder to monopolize communication between Earth and Moon than Earth and Mars
* Spur to international government investment in space development
* Spur to private investment in space
* Faster space law development
– faster space property rights
– faster space mineral rights
– faster space labor law
– faster space human rights
* Faster space independent nations
* New Earth observation possibilities
* Faster, higher-bandwidth space internet
* Faster need for more heavy lift
* Faster bootstrap of economy based on
– intellectual property exports
– tourism
– accessible science
– entertainment
– space skills
– low-g skills
– labor saving technology

hundreds of thousands KIA, huge deficit, invasion paranoia for 4 years on the West Coast, hundreds of billions spent just to rebuild europe…

Germany and Japan didn’t have any WMD’s either, and Germany’s program ended in 1943!

yep, the end is nigh!

so…. http://www.thespacereview.com/article/217/1

Zubrin categorizes everything he has to say against the Vision by saying it isn’t directly related to getting to Mars. So?

Normally I see as allies any pro-space group. The Mars Society is the big exception in that their leader is quite honestly a fanatic that would damn everything not torn from the pages of his mars manifesto. Arrogance and vanity. Of course, in the interests of full disclosure, I’d be labeled as a earth/moon system industrialist. I don’t care much about mars.

Mr. Olds, I would take exception to your dismissal of our ability to go to the moon for commercial gain, because:

1) We have the technology to go to the moon
2) We have actually gone to the moon
3) We know at least a little about what is on the moon
4) We have the technology to extract resources from the moon (oxygen being the easiest probably)
5) There are people working to make this happen

Although I guess you do have a point when you consider us like the vikings. They knew about the new world, they just didn’t bother with colonization. Sort of like us now, I guess.

That can be changed.

Posted by Brent Ziarnick at August 29, 2004 10:13 AM

Brent, don’t be a troll.

Zubrin and his Mars zealots are not healthy for space. Zubrin’s certainly not a fan of Bush, and this statement of his is a blatant lie to give space enthusiasts an excuse to vote for Kerry in the election even though Bush is the only one who can or will restart the American space effort.

Furthermore, Zubrin and his bunch of Mars fanatics are idiots. That Zubrin would condemn the space initiative because it didn’t aim for Mars immediately (or that it was delivered by a republican perhaps?) clearly shows he has no interest in space beyond his own arrogant Mars dementia.

The Republic’s in ruin? Care to explain? I must have missed the collapse.

Posted by Jason Rhian at August 28, 2004 03:32 AM

Posted by Bill White at August 26, 2004 11:08 AM