Why Swap Gravity Wells?

Rant time again folks!
I have had run ins with the Mars Society over this issue, and I am going to bring it up here in an extended rant...
Why are we going to Mars?
What is the point of expending all this money on going to the next planet along, an inhospitable dustbowl. What do we get (Other than a pat on the back and a warm glow. No hang on. That's just cosmic rays)
So we want to "colonize space". Lets do it right! Forget Mars. It's just another gravity well.
The moon is fine as it's a low gravity source of materials. You can get your materials into orbit for the cost of some maglev gear. The well isn't too deep.
Why are we going into space? Well lets have a look at possible reasons:

1. We want to explore: Yup. A good reason. Probes can do a pretty good job. More on that later.


2. We want to get some of our eggs out of the one basket: Another good reason. So we are going to instead put them on a planet that is hundreds of times harsher than anything we have had to face before, at the bottom of a gravity well and hope we can get them up to snuff with enough of a tech civilization so they can survive without direct injections from the home planet. And who is going to pay for this again? What do they get out of it? How many elections before your colony gets "cut from the budget"?


3. Liebenstrom: Hah! A false economy. World population "growth" is slowing rapidly. Besides, there is no way we could ever get people off the planet fast enough to make a difference, even with beanstalk space elevators.


4. Scientific Progress: At last a real argument. Nothing generates real science like putting a damn fine hard problem, and throwing money at it. Stuff gets done. Research happens. Much of this has a direct impact on our lives. It is also the kind of science that get our next generation of scientists motivated. They may not end up as Rocket Scientists, but just an interest in Science alone is good for us.


5. Spinoffs/Money: The spinoffs from the moon shot revitalised and reinvigorated the US economy in a way that the war machine never could. Think of it as a giant "Hoover Dam" move, but with more useful end materials. I sit in a room with Teflon™ AND Velcro™, both spinoffs from the space race. Relatives have had their lives saved by the life support tech developed for the same project.

However, despite all of the above, I think it is the wrong target. Mars is a dead end. Any attempt tcolonizese will founder and die. At least they will if we approach the way the mars societand mostst pundits seem to be approaching it.

What we should be aiming for is to make self sustaining colonies. Colonies that are TRULY self sustaining, and not just in terms of "more people are born than die". I mean that they should be aiming to make Money

So where should we be aiming then?

We should be aiming at places that we can make money! Lets look at the moon. 1/6th gravity and close. But what can we make money out of there? Well, there is all this rock, and possibly alumina, and other raw materials, and they are in a shallow enough gravity well that we can get them out a lot cheaper than lugging stuff from Earth. Some potential there, but only in context, with a more concerted push. So where to push for? How about space itself. We can't see the Forest for the Trees here, folks. Lets aim for space itself.

Let me explain...

Rather than trying to aim for those pesky planets, lets aim to set up self sustaining space colonies. Lets occupy the LaGrange points! Lets mine the asteroids! Lets get our Hydrocarbons by scooping past Jupiter! Lets get water and air from the rings of Saturn!

How? Maybe, just maybe, we don't think BIG enough.

So here is John's plan for Dominating Space... (I'd love to claim sole responsibility for this, but I'd be lying... MANY people have had similar ideas. I know I am not the first)

1. Start setting up a Moon Colony: Get them to start aiming to refine raw materials, using solar power, intusablele building materials. This is going to be important in later steps. We can immediately start tapping into the spinoffs, and it gets us motivated.


2. Build a REAL space Station: We are talking something big, that can sit between LEO and GEO, spinning for gravity and acting as a launchpoint for further work. This sucker can immediately start producing crystalline products, Bio products, Zero G Amalgams and Zero G Casts. All these things have a very good return per gram and very hard to do in a gravity well. Make sure it also has "holiday" facilities for rich space tourists. Again on the good publicity. How about somlegalizeded gambling? Las Vegas in space?


3. Build a BeanStalk: We'll certainly need this. The raw materials for the GEO base can come from the Moon. This lets us get raw materials that we can't get from the Moon. It'll also be needed later when we want to get resources back to Earth.


4. Head for the NEO Asteroids. Mine them: Start getting sombuiltlt materials together. Some of this stuff you sell back to Earth, some you keep up there for your next wave of space craft.


5. Build a bigger Space Station: It's going to be used to sit at one of the LaGrange points, so it'll need to be able to ride out a solar storm. This one will be used for managing further expansion, scientific research, and habitation. It's going to have to be big to ride out a solar storm, so you may as well use it.


6. Head for the Asteroid Belt: Mine that: We should start getting some more interesting minerals from here, as well as all the Nickel and Iron that we can eat. Again, sell some to Earth, but sell more to your other space bases. By now they should be ready to expand in size, scope and persuasion.


7. Upgrade the Moon / Space / LaGrange points for retirement villages. Low G environments are good for extending the lives of the frail. falling over in a 1/6th G environment is so much less destructive on the infirm. Certain operations are also safer outside of a gravity well.


8. Set up a Space Station near the Asteroid Belts: This one will be gigantic. Possibly a hollowed out Asteroid. It will become your financial/social hub for furthecolonizationon.


9. Investigate Jupiter and Saturn for BusinesOpportunitieses: Holiday DestinationsVaporur Mining? Hydrocarbons? Who knows yet what will be out there? It will be relatively easy to get there from the Asteroid Belt too.


10. Put Permanent Space Stations around the Planets: You may as well take advantage of the gravity well for something, even if it is just to anchor your space station.


11. Finally, start looking at occupying Mars: You now have an infrastructure in place that can aid the colony if it gets in trouble. You have decentralizeded society of spacefarers who can contribute money and technology. Your life support is advanced. You also don't have to import all the way from Pesky Earth.

Now lets go back to those original points:

1. We want to Explore: We have now explored much more thoroughly than we ever could have, aiming for just one target.


2. We want to get some of our eggs out of the one basket: We now have self sustaining bases across the Solar System, moving out icontinuousus waves. We have our eggs in hundreds of baskets.


3. Liebenstrom: How much room will we ever need? We have the volume of the entire Solar System. We also have infrastructure in place to move about in that space.


4. Scientific Progress: Being forced to adapt to a range of environments, and as a wave of advancement, rather than a stab at one goal, our Science has progressed much further, and what could foster an interest more than actually being able to go into space on a holiday?


5. Spinoffs/Money: And here is the Sucker Punch. This whole design above is pushed with the goal of profit as the core, not some wishy washy sense ohonorur, or "because it is there". We are going into space to make money with a return on investment as the goal.

So there you have it. Funnily enough, Sci Fi always imagined that this WOULD be the way we were going to go. The Russians were working towards this. I wonder how History would have been different if we had put off the first moon shots? If instead, we had gone to stay?