to the moon civilian lunar colonization supported by present far side bases
My answer is that the Moon is indeed the logical next step for humans, not Mars. If we ever have millions in space in the near future, I expect it will be on the Moon. And meanwhile, the surface area larger than Africa and full of surprises, then I think we are going to be exploring it for a long time with robots and humans, finding new things all the time. It’s not at all the boring place it seemed to some after Apollo. They didn’t have enough time there, or enough experts, to discover the amazing things that are there to be found. They didn’t even find the lunar caves, some thought to be over 100 km long, or the ice at the poles, which we are pretty sure is there, at least some, but hidden from sight in the darkness, not seen light for billions of years.. Anyway - this is a question with many assumptions about why we go into space - Elon Musk wants to colonize Mars as a backup to save humanity. But Earth is by far the most habitable planet in our solar system and will be for the f...