19 May 2009

I read an editorial on the last page of the June issue of Sky and Telescope where the big advantage to Moon exploration and colonization is that it take 1/22 as much fuel to launch from deep space from the Moon as it does to launch from Earth. But we are Earth-centric and everything that goes anywhere comes from and is controlled by here. Mission control practically has to tell astronauts it is OK to breathe. So where does the fuel savings in launches from the Moon come from if we first have to launch components from Earth to the Moon?