Mars is Sexy

 NASA’s Artemis catchphrase is “Moon to Mars”. They say “Moon” quickly and linger on the “Mars” part. You see, Mars is sexy – Moon is not. We’ve been to Moon. We can see it without a telescope. It’s gray and lifeless and pockmarked. Mars, on the other hand, is mysterious, it has the solar system’s largest volcano, its red, and maybe had life a long time ago, but it's probably lifeless now- but it's far away, and it's red and maybe we could terraform it someday. NASA is not dumb - the way to get funding for Moon is to dangle the prospect of Mars. 

 I don’t have to deal with getting funding from politicians who know nothing about space, so I come right out and say it - I’m a Moon then Mars guy.

Moon doesn’t look like much, Buzz’s “Glorious Desolation” is the closest anyone has come to a compliment on its appearance- but it is close, can advance our understanding of our solar system, teach us how to live in space, and has lots of resources we can use.

It has three particularly attractive features – the ingredients to make propellant, a tiny gravity well, and safe places where humans could live and work. My book, Tube Town – Frontier, explores a lot of the things we need to learn so that Mars is not a suicide mission (see my article Five Roadblocks to Mars).

Mars is not the end goal. There are several places in this solar system that may be more habitable than Mars and may currently host life. We need a thriving, affordable, stable jumping-off point to explore our solar system. Moon is our spaceport.