[discostu]

Colonization should gun for Mars. The moon doesn't have enough atmosphere, it gets too beat up by space junk, inspite of the distance Mars is safer.

[boris]

"The moon doesn?t have enough atmosphere,"

The Martian atmosphere is 1/100 the pressure of Earth. About 8 torr, what we would call a decent vacuum in a high-school lab. About the same pressure as Earth?s atmosphere at an altitude of 100,000 feet. It is mostly CO2, and very tenuous. It does little to stop big rocks from hitting Mars.

Mars? gravity is about 0.37 g, whereas the Moon is about half of Mars', one-sixth of Earth's.

Temperatures on Mars can reach 100 below zero, and the presence of even the thin atmosphere can chill your hardware very rapidly.

--Boris

[Extremely Extreme Extremist]

Colonization should gun for Mars. The moon doesn't have enough atmosphere, it gets too beat up by space junk, inspite of the distance Mars is safer.

It would take a good 100 years for humans to settle on Mars. There would have to be some type of artificial "global warming" of the planet to sustain life, and the rugged surface isn't suitable for growth.

I say Saturn. I've always been intrigued by Saturn. Saturn is so light it can float on water assuming if there was a body of water big enough to sustain it.