MargaretC

https://www.wired.com/story/how-a-scientist-and-cartoonist-envision-living-on-the-moon-and-mars/

Fascinating book answering the question - "Have we thought through" living" in space which is totally different from "visiting" space?"

The answer is no.

The economic, physical, biological and legal

barriers are enormous and many of them are pretty much ignored by enthusiasts for settling on the Moon, on Mars or in space habitats.

The book point out that during long lunar nights the moon’s more frigid than Antarctica. It’s also airless, low-gravity, and bombarded with space radiation, and it lacks carbon for growing plants and any valuable minerals.

Mars comes with many of those challenges and more: The dead Martian dirt is filled with poisonous perchlorate, its dust storms are prone to covering outdoor equipment, including much-needed solar panels, and it’s much farther away, which creates a 20-minute time delay when trying to talk to anybody back home. “So that’s Mars. Most of the problems of the Moon, plus toxic dust storms and "half-year" flight each way.

A good poem is like a crystal - hard, compact, sparkling (but with light not wit!) and somewhere a hidden law of construction. Herbert Read