Pros And Cons Of Building A Colony On The Moon

The Moon is a familiar face, a celestial beacon in the night sky. Earth’s only natural satellite, it has always been a subject of human interest. On September 13th 1959, humanity finally reached its nearest cosmic neighbor with the Lunar 2 probe, impacting on the Moon’s surface. By the end of 1972 NASA, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, had successfully sent six manned missions to the moon. Now NASA wants to send more people to the Moon, not for a short mission, but to stay and live there. The idea of building a colony on the Moon has been with NASA since the 1960’s and now they have the technology and collaboration to do it. A colony should be built on the Moon because humanity has the technology to get there and it would provide many benefits. The first question of building this colony is how NASA and other space-faring corporations plan to do it. The first step in their plan is finding a place to build the colony. Most of the moon is very hot or very cold, with freezing low temperatures of -454℉ and scorching highs of 212℉.

One of these benefits could be using the Moon as a cosmic launch pad. Building satellites on the Moon and launching them into space could save government funded space-faring corporations like NASA a lot of money. “Compared with building satellites on Earth and launching them into space, the cost power savings would be substantial” (Pelton 41). NASA could use the money saved to expand the colony or fund other programs. Building satellites is only scratching the surface. Industries could use resources on the Moon for projects back on Earth. “Lunar manufacturing sites could also produce components for use on space stations, or even for buildings and homes back on Earth” (Pelton 41). Using materials on the Moon for projects on Earth saves resources back on Earth. Mining for these resources on the Moon could also make substantial