I guess "closer" covers it, but it doesn't really. It took the mighty Saturn rocket ( which we no longer have !!! ) to send three men to the moon, so what about Mars? ... never minding the years long versus days long journey? The energy requirements are made all the more greater by the greater mass of Mars.
It just seems to me that if we were in a position even to realistically contemplate a manned journey to Mars, building a moon base would seem so easy that we might as well do it first, as a staging point if nothing else.
It just seems to me that if we were in a position even to realistically contemplate a manned journey to Mars, building a moon base would seem so easy that we might as well do it first, as a staging point if nothing else.
* * *
A successful permanent settlement on the moon would be politically fraught. If someone made a go of it there, they’d be sitting in a tactically superior position to all nations on Earth, if it ever came to another big shootin’ war. Rocks are cheap. (Read “The Moon is a Harsh Mistress” if you’re not familiar with it.)
Mars is lots further away, and politically, that’s probably an advantage.