[Edit: for the record, I would say it's _unlikely_ but not altogether _impossible_]

The main advantage of colonizing the moon would be the same as the main advantage of being any kind of two-planet species: a dramatic reduction in existential risk.

In the very long-term, sure. But that won’t be much of an advantage for the foreseeable future since it would be much easier to build a fortified survival dome here on Earth than to build a self-sufficient lunar base.

Power generation. Solar cells? Won’t they be in the dark 14 days a month? How do you get the energy back to Earth? (edit: I suppose there are polar regions that get more sun)

Astronomy. Sure, that’s a good one. I’ve long thought that it would be great to have an array of radio telescopes on the far side of the moon. Not much money in that pursuit, however. ROI is knowledge not currency. Hard sell.

Low-g materials and pharma. I don’t know much about that. Haven’t heard of too much of that happening on the ISS making headlines down here, either.

Launching other space explorations. Sure, but you have to get it there first. I think it’s about $10,000 per pound to get stuff in to low Earth orbit – how much to get to the Moon?

I’d love to see it, though.

If all you’re looking for is something Very Interesting then you’re not going to justify sending humans when you find it, because it will still be cheaper to send a bunch of robots. Even if you want a return mission, you can send robots to pick it up. I’d expect hiring the engineers and computers scientists to create such a robot would be much cheaper than creating a sufficiently robust human deep space travel program.

http://falsesteps.wordpress.com

The only extra-planetary mission I’ve discussed there to date is the post-Apollo Manned Venus Flyby proposal, but Mars’ll get its day soon enough.

(Though as a Canadian, I do feel compelled to apologize about the advertising.)

And I say this is as someone who’s fascinated by manned space exploration to the point of having a blog about the “might-have-beens” of the world’s various space programs, 1941-2012.

The culture of the colony was, on the surface, one of fierce independence. The unspoken truth was that the residents were still dependent on Earth, and far from self-sufficient.

I’m glad he has this in there, because it’s the truth about any so-called “escape” to Mars.  I can’t wait to find out how much it is going to cost me to subsidise another fucking whiney, self-entitled Tea Party in space.

That aside, has anyone bothered to do a basic mass inventory of critical life elements/molecules on Mars?  Oxygen, nitrogen, water?  Surely we’ve already figured out how much of those exist per acre for, say, a farm in Kansas: with the totals from Mars (barring the, I’m sure inevitable, discovery of an ancient underground alien frozen atmosphere vault) we can then plot out exactly how much surface area we possibly colonize under absolutely idealized conditions, revise downwards from there, and then decide how exciting this all is.

Or maybe they’ll bioengineer themselves to not require respiration and eat perchlorate and sulfur.