Small Steps Before Giant Leaps.
by Armchair Anarchist.
Why we should be planning to build orbital colonies before lunar colonies?
NASA caused quite a stir with a recent announcement of their intent to
return to the moon and establish a full-time colony there. Some have
whole-heartedly applauded the agency; some have trotted out the
traditional 'waste of money' objections that dogged the original Apollo
missions; still others have cautiously expressed approval, but expressed
concern over the lack of a distinct budget for the project and its
potential to direct funding away from other avenues of research and
exploration.
As a life-long space advocate, I'm happy to see any push towards
establishing a foothold for our species beyond the limits of the Earth's
atmosphere, and I shall leave the debate on political motivations and
budgetary restraints to those more qualified in such matters. However, I
would contend that attempting to establish a Lunar colony would be like
trying to run before we can walk properly, and that our efforts would be
better directed to establishing orbital habitats, if only as a pre-amble
to colonising other planets or satellites.
First and foremost, we already have an orbital colony (albeit a very
small one) in the form of the ISS - and simply maintaining and expanding
it has proved to be not only difficult in an engineering sense, but
economically challenging too. If resources are going to be expended on
space colonies (and I believe they most certainly should be), why not
build on the platform that has already been established? If I remember
the initial plans for the ISS correctly from my youth, we're far short
of the bustling scientific outpost that we were supposed to have
established by this point in time. Progress has been hampered by issues
with the shuttles and rockets used to ferry materials and crew, granted;
but it would be a mistake to assume that similar problems would not be
attendant to a Lunar project.
more...
http://www.futurismic.com/2006/12/new_column_armchair_anarchist.html
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