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Comment by Causality1 | Hacker News Reader

Going back to the moon is just busy work to distract from the fact they don't have the funding or the ambition to get to Mars.

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Going back the moon is the logical next step in going to Mars. You don't send off materials and bodies in the hope that years later it will work out.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_missions_to_the_Moon

It took many attempts to get a successful moon mission where we landed. How many more before we could dig into the rock for a habitat? Now multiply the time by the round trip to Mars. The fantasy of being on Mars in X years is fraught with dangers that include our own imperfection in execution. Don't expect a man on Mars in your lifetime, at least not one who comes back.

Indeed, the Moon is the best location to develop and perfect technologies to settle on another planet and to live there autonomously.

Because it's very near it's obviously much faster and cheaper to ship things there, and it allows near-instant communication back and forth.

Once the technologies are mature it will just be a question of longer shipping to mars or anywhere else.

No, earth is the best place to develop technologies to settle on another world. Planning a moon base when we can't even build and run a sealed biosphere on earth is like looking for sponsors for your F-1 team before learning how to drive a car.

Why would you need a fully sealed biosphere? It's not like we're going on a solitary one way trip. We've kept the ISS running for enough years to prove that, in terms of biosphere anyway, we have the technology to build a base on the moon or Mars.

>Indeed, the Moon is the best location to develop and perfect technologies to settle on another planet and to live there autonomously.

So which is it? Do we need to build a base on the moon to develop technologies to let us settle Mars or do we not need to go to the moon at all because we already have the technology to build a Mars base?

I responded to something you said. You're quoting something that I never said at me while completely ignoring the substance of my comment. That's no way to have a rational conversation.

Earth is a good place to develop and simulate but at one point we need to put this into practice and learn a lot in the process.

To use your F-1 analogy: At one point you need to build and an actual car and to drive it on an actual track.

That "eventually" is much, much further away than where we are now.

I won't even begin to take a Mars mission seriously until there are permanent, sealed, self-sufficient bases in the Sahara, Antarctica, etc.

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