Thank you very much

Marcos Passarello

Superman – Just because human existence has caused great destruction to Earth, you’re forgetting, we had to get to the industrial age to get to the environmental (or green) age. Our planet is going to be just fine. Exploring space and colonizing other planets helps our technology get to a point that we can stop emitting harmful chemicals, stripping the ground of goodies, etc…all of this was ALWAYS going to happen. “We” didn’t do this to the planet. The planet did it to it self. We are just as much a part of this earth as those trees are. If we didn’t start chopping them down, we’d be living in trees! lol. Though I do agree, we need to start cleaning up now, but I don’t think we should let that keep us from moving past Earth.

Frank – It only takes a few years for a prototype reactor to be turned into a commercial size one. I know at the University of Chicago or something there is a prototype of this type of reactor. And to say there is no need to mine for he3 when we don’t have a use for it yet is pretty short-sighted. If we don’t start stockpiling it, other countries will have it all and we’ll be buying it from them, driving up our debt.

Exploration is something that has driven our race to where it is. Without exploration, we are doomed to become extinct. And I for one do not prefer that over humans “trashing” up another planet!

There are many good reasons for permanent human presence on the Moon, but that one won’t mean anything until commercial fusion plants using He3 actually exist. Until then, there is no signifigant market for the stuff…

“I don’t think one filthy human being should be allowed off this planet until we repair the damage we have done to her.”

Personally, I always bathe before flying…

Yes, if we must wait for that mythical day when ‘all our problems on Earth have been solved,’ then it’s true that we will never go anywhere. Fortunately, it’s not necessary to have the unanimous permission of every human on Earth, in order to go anyway.

“I hope and pray somethign or someone stops us before we have a chance to extend our violence and destruction beyond this poor, helpless, and dying earth.”

And go to worlds that (with one or two possible exceptions in this solar system) have always been dead? ‘Destroying’ the Moon biologically, was done by nature long ago.

Any ‘someone or something’ that could stop us, may not be very benign either. Be careful what you wish for…

I mean eventually we’re going to want to create ships outside of the Earth. Perhaps large ones that would require feats of engineering to launch on Earth, would be much simpler to lauch from the moon.

The moon doesn’t have an atmosphere or a large amount of orbiting garbage, but also has a much weaker gravity.

But I suppose before you go that far in concepts it’d be better to find economical and environmentally responsible methods of getting payloads into space.