The High Frontier
Colonizing the Moon in Ten Easy Steps

"We must colonize space in order to survive."
... Stephen Hawking

There are six billion people on earth. By 2050 it is projected there will be ten billion. No one knows what the carrying capacity of the planet is. There is evidence that we are exceeding it now. Humanity is like a virus infecting the surface of the planet, using up all the food and resources, filling the available space and throwing off toxins that will poison itself and the host planet. We are heading toward a catastrophic collapse.

Yet, of the six billion on the planet, four billion are living in abject poverty. More than two billion go hungry. The economic system is based on and demands continual growth, but there is nowhere left to grow into. On earth.

In the rich countries, consumers have all the material things they can use and more. The few super-wealthy who run rich nations and corporations have more money than they could ever spend. Among the poor, there is no money, no resources, no infrastructure to lift them out of poverty. In a closed system, which is our planet, the only thing left is the fight over limited resources. As the poor and disenfranchised turn to fundamental extremes and the rich react with imperial wars to protect their lifestyles, it is either climate change or weapons of mass destruction that may finally limit mankind's growth by eliminating billions and leaving great swaths of the planet uninhabitable for eons. In the past half century there have been a number of very near misses...nuclear Armageddons avoided by luck and within seconds of catastrophe.

With the pent up anger of humans pressed to close together, the future is uncertain. Humanity balances on a knife edge. Whether we will destroy ourselves or move to a positive next stage of human destiny is in our own hands. It is an intelligence test for the human race.

For salvation, one has to look in the historical direction of heaven. Above us are all the natural resources of the universe. There is a new, high frontier. Our first explorers have been there and planted a flag. Now it is high time to open that frontier.

There is a new space race, a moon race, a race to the high ground, the new frontier, the high frontier. The winner will have the key to unlimited energy and a new enterprise zone of unlimited wealth. The race itself, will change the circumstance of mankind, freeing humanity from the closed system of our home planet, with it's limited resources, overpopulation and ancient conflicts over disputed lands.

The nation or nations that prevail will have the ability to change the balance of power on earth. Abundant, clean energy alone has the ability, according to one study, to raise the yearly average income of everyone on the planet from an average of $400 to $13,000. A new frontier enriches everyone, gives everyone hope and opportunity. It is the greatest escape valve for the pressures confronting us.

This new race has many entrants: Russia, The U.S., China, India, Europe and Japan as well as minor participants. Some will co-operate, some may go it alone. The opening of the New, High Frontier may mirror the opening of the American Frontier, with hazards and hardships but great resources, land, wealth and just as importantly, a new political paradigm... What will that be?

The race is over establishing a colony to harvest helium3 for fusion fuel and lunar solar power, to be beamed back to earth. This clean, safe, renewable energy will replace all fossil fuel, mitigating climate change and creating great new wealth on the home planet and in space. The race is on...largely under the radar. And, America may be lagging behind.

What is at stake, how will we create an outpost, then a working colony? Who are the leaders? What are the stages of colonization? What political and economic structure will be developed? What will be the relationship of the new colonists to earth? How will we get emigrants off the planet? Where will we go from there?

We have the technology. It's not rocket science anymore. In the next hour or so we will find out how we will do it.

President Kennedy called it "The New Frontier". Professor Gerard O'Neill called it the High Frontier. It is the Next Frontier, the Near Frontier and the best hope for mankind. The meek shall inherit the earth, the rest...is ours.