9
Terraforming: why the Moon is a better target than Mars
(bigthink.com)
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
this post was submitted on 17 Aug 2023
9 points (100.0% liked)
Space
2 readers
1 users here now
Cover author: Michał Kałużny http://astrofotografia.pl/
founded 1 year ago
I always just assumed it'd be easier because it's closer...
Yes, the moon is closer. On average it is 1,000 times closer than mars but you only need about 2.3X the rocket power (DeltaV: Moon: 2,635m/s vs Mars: 6,268m/s ) to get there compared to the moon.
But they are both far enough away that is doesn't really matter.
A colony in either place cannot rely on outside assistance to come and help them.
The difference is huge. The moon is practically right next door to us (384 megameters). Mars closest point to Earth is 54000 megameters.
It's like having a friend living 384 meters down the road vs living 54-150 kilometers away.