Do you believe a Luna Colony is more viable in the next 10-20 years than a man on Mars?

@xSharp eventually yes, but it would help counteract climate change, since dust particles will block a certain amount of sunlight.

@PikachuTrainer no it would make climate change worse, the moon affects climate as well

@xSharp the moon affects our climate with the tides, but it would take 1000's of years really for any real effect to be noticed, and by then we wouldn't need to mine the moon as we would have far more valuable resources in the inner and outer asteroid belts.

@PikachuTrainer you selfish fuck think of the kids! lol they dont want to grow up on a space station cuz their planet is dead

@xSharp how would their planet be dead? Please do explain that, and how would it be selfish to expand humanity throughout Sol to increase our species chances of survival for the next 1000 or so years?

@PikachuTrainer dead as far as living things go, every thing on earth evolved with a moon orbiting it, take that away and now life has to adapt very quickly, or earth is no longer habitable

@xSharp why would we be taking the Moon away?

@PikachuTrainer the question was to mine the moon or mars, i choose mars for these reasons, we are lazy stupid apes, we would choose the moon anyway despite our children being screwed over

@xSharp our children wouldn't be screwed over and arguably mining Luna, even for a short time period, would be required to expand further into the Sol System from Mars and the inner Asteroid Belt to Pluto and the Kuiper Belt, mining Luna would not take the Moon away nor would it bring the end times of Humanity.

@PikachuTrainer not really, the moon came out of earth, anything we can find on the moon we can find on earth, with the exception of rocks from deep space that have collided with it, we should leave it alone, all our attempts to "better" the planet has ended in failure, when will we learn that we should not fuck with our own habitat

@xSharp that is incorrect, the Luna didn't actually come out of Earth as such, there are several possibilities as to how Luna came to be, one being the Giant-impact Hypothesis.

@PikachuTrainer which do you believe is most likely?

@xSharp the one I just mentioned I believe has the most merit, and we do have evidence that proves that Earth and Luna are separate entities.

@PikachuTrainer like what?

@xSharp material and rock analysis.

@PikachuTrainer how were they able to tell if what they found was from another entity if it is the same minerals as found on earth?

@xSharp through lab testing and taking samples. This gives a little bit information about it. http://adsbit.harvard.edu//full/1971LPSC....2....1V/0000001.000.html

@PikachuTrainer thats a sample most likely from an asteroid collision, it is most likely no in large enough quantities to warrant a mining operation

@xSharp it could be from anything, however it is the best place for mining, of course prospecting would have to be done first, since we cannot guarantee the entire moon will be mineral rich, and most of it would be under the Luna surface.

@PikachuTrainer but we would end up ripping the moon apart rather than go back empty handed looking for minuscule amounts of whatever the sample was,the payoff is not worth the damage it will do.

@xSharp we wouldn't rip the moon apart, that wouldn't really be possible unless we are using something on the scale of Anti-Matter.

@PikachuTrainer how much total mass would be removed from the moon looking for resources?

@xSharp over a period of 100 years, not a lot considering the actual mass of Luna.

@PikachuTrainer what percentage?

@xSharp not even 0.01%. Most of the unwanted rock would stay behind and only the valuable material would be taken, some of it being used to create infrastructure on Luna itself.