Where to First?

The best place to go to first would be the moon. The moon is the closest thing to the Earth and would only take about threes days to travel there. It would be relatively easy to send supplies to the moon compared to Mars or any other planet. Communication delays would be small and any communication or navigation systems could easily use the existing satellites orbiting the Earth.

But whats so special about the moon? It seems like a big empty desert so why should we try to colonize it.? The moon has something called Helium-3. Helium-3 three is a non-radioactive isotope of Helium. The importance of Helium-3 is that it is used for recherche in nuclear fusion, a proses that holds much potential for meeting the power demand of Earth, but has yet to be commercialized in an efficient way. Helium-3 is rare on Earth, but the moon is thought to have it in a great abundance of it. If we could extract Helium-3 to Earth and use it for testing, a nuclear fusion reactor could be developed that would be efficient enough to become commercialized. Helium-3 would be cheaper than current oil prices and it is estimated that the amount of Helium-3 could meet the power demand of Earth for over 1,000 years. The problem with fusion reactors, as of now, is that they have yet be commercialized because most nuclear research has been devoted to nuclear fission. Fission is the breakdown of the nucleus while fusion is the build up of a nucleus, both cause large amount of energy to be released.

In addition to mining for Helium-3, the moon could act as a refueling station for future space craft. The gravity of the moon is 1/6 that of Earth and it lacks the atmosphere that Earth has. This would make launching a rocket off the moon a lot easier than launching form Earth. Future Spacecraft could launch from Eartha and then go to the moon to be refueled. Form there, the craft could go just about anywhere with its almost full tank of gas. Spacecrafts could also come to the moon form deep space to refueled and then go back out to space.

Next the far side of the moon is in radio silence which would be perfect for a telescope. The telescope would not be interfered by an atmosphere, radio waves, unwanted light, or any other the other inconveniences telescopes experience on Earth. Also, the far side of the moon is no the dark side of the moon as many people may be lead to believe. Both sides receive about the same amount of light, but the far side never faces the Earth no matter what.

Even thought the moon offers these incentives, how would a human live on the moon? The moon may seem to be waterless, but it actuarial has a large amount of water ice on it polar caps that can be melted. In addition, materials found on the surface of the moon could be collected and refined to make building material for shelters. Oxygen could be created from chemical reactions form oxidized materials in the moon soil, regolith. This process could also be used to make water if the ice on the caps becomes too inconvenient. Until nuclear fusion using Helium-3 is perfected, a colony could be powered by solar farms. There are regions on the moon that receive sunlight 24/7 so there would be no worry of a power outage.