Before Mars, A Colony on the MOON

The First step in building a colony on Mars would be building one on the Moon. Figuring out how much and what and where and when supplies become crucially low;   right there, just a few days away from Earth.

Figuring out how to create a complete environment; doing it underground with various air locks so that a survivable atmosphere can be created and maintained.

Imaging setting up drilling equipment to go one hundred yards into a mountain, or building from within a crater. Drilling one long corridor, and removing the stones and dirt, the making side corridors.   That tunnel would act as caves did in early days of human evolution.

Inside that moon cave, with three or more air locks so that little air would be lost when entering and exiting.

There would be a garden in that cave in which various vegetables could be grown in human waste, fertilised by human waste.  Hence the collection of waste would be important and procedures set up to deal with waste.

Water would have to be brought in then manufactured.   Water would be the most priceless commodity and human waste, urine would have to be processed so as to create a constant supply.

There would have to be protocols for bathing and hand washing to avoid bacterial infection, for the danger is if people can not bathe every day, can not adequately wash their hands, the method of removing bacteria needs to be well organised and not rely on getting supplies of various preparations from Earth.

This would be the most crucial feature, how to create and maintain and enhance water as well as breathable air. Air would be a bit easier, with plants exhaling Oxygen and inhaling Carbon Dioxide, but the levels need to be carefully monitored to insure the abundance of oxygen.

To create a livable, maintainable and renewable environment on the moon must be completely established before the idea of going to Mars is on the table.   For where a set of rockets full of supplies can be deployed to orbit the moon, just in case the inhabitants get into difficulty, that will not be possible on Mars which will take months to travel to.

If humans develope faster travel so that getting to Mars is a week, maybe two at the most, the danger is lessened.   But considering how long it will take to go from Earth to Mars, and being aware that humans have not developed the necessary technology to great a ship that can land and take off and enter space, it is not even a suicide mission.

To send people to Mars before completely comprehending how to create a livable environment on that planet, how to maintain it, how to add to it,  is a total waste of resources because the people will simply die.

To create livable environments on the moon and to maintain them over a period of years would make it far more likely that lessons would be learned and duplicated, and that a colony could be set on Mars and become self sufficient within a few years.

This means that a number of supply ships would have to be sent from Earth every month or every other month until such time as they can be limited to twice a year.

But first, let human colonise the moon.