Critical time

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A Mars project would not be as bad as you think if it is not cut abruptly as
the Apollo program. A Mars travel asks for the same delta vee as a trip to
Phobos or Deimos, both are made from common asteroid stuff. A mass driver on
one of these small world would launch at low cost the raw material for a
space settlement. In space, what count is not distance, it is energy or delta
vee. In that respect, the martian satellites are are better target than the
Moon. They are too the rearest asteroids-like object at hand.

It is unlikely that a large program would be aimed to some asteroid, so a
Mars project with a Phobos additive is the best first step we can envision.

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A phobos refueling station would be an obvious first step. It is also worth
remembering that Phobos and Deimos are fragmented 'rubble piles' containing a
great deal of empty space. If fisures or cavities exist that are on the order of
20 metres in diameter, then simple inflatable structures could be erected within
them, to provide habitation space. It wouldn't surprise me if, 150 years from
now, phobos is both a rich and highly populated little world.