I was inside the new Starbase building for a board meeting, a looming reminder of the mission overhead.
Mars is a good substrate for making humans. It has plenty of carbon for making food for a growing population (the atmosphere is 95% CO2, with nitrogen too). And that’s essential for making humanity independently multiplanetary.
The Moon, on the other hand, is good for making robots, solar panels, and a linear mass driver to inject them into service for huge AI data centers in a sun-sync polar orbit. By weight, the moon is 20% silicon, 43% oxygen (in metal oxides), 10% iron and 3% aluminum. Robot food.
But carbon — that essential element for carbon-based life forms — is a trace element on the Moon, measured in parts per million. There’s even less nitrogen. And no atmosphere to draw from. All very harsh for humanity.
Moon and Mars are very different, but both offer exciting developments that will materialize in our generation.
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