A reason to go to Mars

On Dec 16, 2008, at 10:04 PM, Marcel wrote:

> True. But its much easier and cheaper to set up a colony on Mars than
> to build one from scratch. Mars allows us to cheaply test many
> colonization concepts that will be needed in order to build permanent
> habitats in solar orbit.
>

That might be true if the one you were building from scratch were in a
Martian orbit. But it's almost certainly NOT true if you're comparing
to a colony built from scratch in cislunar space.

The Earth-Moon system is where all the resources, manpower, and
infrastructure is, and it's going to be that way for a long time.

Best,
- Joe