Research: Moon Colony

Topic: Making a colony on the moon is desirable (or undesirable).While humans have long thought of gods living in the sky, the idea of space travel or humans living in space dates to at least 1610 after the invention of the telescope when German astronomer Johannes Kepler wrote to Italian astronomer Galileo: “Let us create vessels and sails adjusted to the heavenly ether, and there will be plenty of people unafraid of the empty wastes. In the meantime, we shall prepare, for the brave sky-travelers, maps of the celestial bodies.” In popular culture… Space fantasies flourished after Jules Verne’s “From Earth to the Moon” was published in 1865, and again when RKO Pictures released a film adaptation, A Trip to the Moon, in 1902. Dreams of space settlement hit a zenith in the 1950s with Walt Disney productions such as “Man and the Moon,” and science fiction novels including Ray Bradbury’s The Martian Chronicles (1950).

• [PRO] Space colonization is the next logical step in space exploration and human growth.
• [PRO] Technological advancement into space can exist alongside conservation efforts on Earth.
• [PRO] Humans have a right and a moral duty to save our species from suffering and extinction. Colonizing space is one method of doing so.
• [CON] Humans living in space is pure science fiction.
• [CON] Space is inhospitable to humans and life in space, if even possible, would be miserable.
• [CON] Humans have made a mess of Earth. We should clean it up instead of destroying a moon or another planet.

– Pro and Con: Space Colonization (Encyclopedia Britannica, Last Accessed: August 2022)