Interesting, but what's to say that the challenges on Mars aren't worst because some unknown factor? I guess I'm thinking more about the rescue mission. If its the moon then something can be attempted but if its Mars they are a lost cause.
No matter where a colony or base may be it will be a bit to launch a rescue mission. While being on the moon it is a matter of days where as on mars it will be a matter of months. Either way if the disaster is bad enough neither one would be a rescue mission but a recovery mission. I would love to see a base on both the moon and on mars. I think the moon is the best start and a interesting place to be if we did find a hidden alien base on the moon.
Frankly, our first base should not be on any planet or moon, but in orbit around Earth.
The challenges of maintaining a colony are massively increased by the simple matter of setting up logistical supply lines. A staging ground in orbit that serves as the focal point of missions and can facilitate final ship construction and repair is in my opinion an essential first step.
Now, ideally, this would come paired with systems that make the earth to orbit transition easier. One of my favorite ideas is also one of the simplest in base concept. Drop a rope down.
Ok, so by a rope I mean a cable composed of carbon buckytubes (The stuff is like the bastard progeny of diamonds and spider silk) that is on the order of 100,000 kilometers long, but still, simple in concept right?
Done right, the station and paired cable will remain in geosynchronous orbit, with the bottom end of said cable essentially floating above the ground. Attach appropriately designed elevator cars, and bam, no more need for rocket boosting into space. Its less preposterous than it might sound. Estimated 50 years and $50 billion (Chump change compared to the material resources such a project can help nab).
Yeah, there are so many conspiracy theories that say that the entire launch was fake but still, how did they manage to get the technology to send a spaceship out, but yet they don't use it, I mean it had to come from somewhere right? If they didn't have the technology to do it when they faked the launch, what did they do? Build and research it while you're faking a moon landing? Let me know what you guys think about this.
I'm pretty sure it's not fake seeing as how those with a strong enough telescope can actually see the stuff we left up there. And by the time we made it to the moon we'd also crushed the USSR in the space race. Making it to the moon was simply icing on the cake.
We made it to the moon but have not gone back. Our first step into space exploration has already occurred with a space station. The next step is a lunar base and then branching out to the next closest planets. Now if aliens have a lunar base I guess we will be meeting real quick if we built our own lunar base.