this post was submitted on 10 Apr 2026
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The Artemis 2 flyby of the moon was really cool. But the photos of the moon really reminded me how absurd it is that a dozen obscenely wealthy bastards are pushing us to live and work in a deadly airless ugly desert instead of preserving the miraculous little oasis in space that we already have.
Seeing even just the moon (have managed to see a few other stellar objects) through a telescope is awesome. Haven't checked out the pics yet. Getting to see something far away really puts things in perspective. Billionaires only have power because we let society run this way (mean sort of anyways), they are nothing but a mote on tiny mote getting their power. We need to be better as humans and society.
I'll even say use binoculars you can see craters on the moon, more with a telescope though. That's another solid world but only related to us cause it's our moon. Check out Jupiter or Saturn sometime, it's so satisfying if you can find them, the rings on Saturn which may appear like one of those cheesy bouncy balls with something to stand on, but it's another freaking planet. And our system is a barely a mote in the galaxy let alone the universe. We are fighting each other for random crap when we need to look out there for improvement.
I get sad thinking about how much conflict we have as people over the tiniest issues. Also looking at stuff outside our planet is fucking awesome.
It's more than that. I see it as insurance for humanity if we started permanently settling the moon. Then not even an asteroid could wipe us out.
if the permanent moon settlement was sustainable otherwise it dies just shy of us dying.
That is only true once the colony is self sustaining, which is likely very far out of reach.
Actually, there's a pretty solid chance that a significant asteroid hitting Earth could create enough ejected material to cause serious issues for habitation facilities on the Moon.
Moon base is progress to becoming a multiplanetary species. Most people will die in the planet they are born on, but some may get to move to another.
But does it even matter of humanity survives a bit longer or not?
Nothing matters and everything is pointless, but humanity should strive to continue for as long as possible
if everything is pointless, then why Should we? what point is there in perpetuating our existence, filled for the vast majority with nothing but lifelong suffering?
A moon base could not be truly self sustaining for a long, long time, if ever. Probably never, definitely not within say 500 years.
So if Earth goes, the moon base is definitely gone too. There is no saving humanity without saving Earth.
I agree.
Another way that I like to describe this is that almost nothing could make the earth less hospitable than the moon or mars already are. Asteroid strike? Mars' thin atmosphere is even more vulnerable. Climate change? The moon swings between -170C and 119 C each month. Nuclear war? Try living under constant cosmic radiation in a pressurized habitat that could be completely destroyed by a few small conventional explosives instead of a nuclear bomb.
If we had the ability to make a self sustaining colony on mars we'd be able to restore earth's biosphere or make self sustaining arcologies or bunkers.
Idk why people are downvoting you. The moon has literally nothing we could use to create a self-sustaining colony. Idk if I necessarily agree with your timelines (the future is, um, a bit unpredictable...). But in any forseeable timeline, a moon base watching earth get hit by an asteroid would be watching their own death on slow motion, as everything they need to survive is on earth.
500 years was just a number I threw out there as "clearly beyond any forseeable time". It could be 200 years, 1000 years, maybe never. Point is just that it's completely wrong to think that we just need to land on the moon or on Mars and then we're an "interplanetary species" and if Earth goes, we have a backup plan.