Why L1 for a staging point?

[EarthlingX]

Especially when we still haven’t come up with super good reasons to be out there.
We don’t send man into space for logical reasons. We send them for emotional reasons.

You don't want to go ? Well, i do, and not only me. We, who would like to go, are mostly waiting all our lives, some has already died of old age, many will before it happens. Can we go now, please ?

 

[kelvinzero]

But doesn’t the fuel spent dropping all of that hardware on the Moon, not to mention the price of the hardware, negate any fuel savings you get back out?

For just a single mission to mars it probably would. However a lunar industry along with the experience gained would be a fantastic achievement in its own right. In the short term the moon is probably easier both in budget and politically (astronauts can die just as easily on the moon, but they wont spend a sizable portion of a president's term doing it). In the longer term a lunar industry will make everything space-related more practical, from constructing SSP satellites to tourism.

Especially when we still haven’t come up with super good reasons to be out there.
We don’t send man into space for logical reasons. We send them for emotional reasons.

I think we have come up with super-good reasons, such as the long term survival of the human race. This isnt just through eventually colonizing other worlds but also through mastering basic goals such as recycling, artificial biospheres and mastery of ISRU on worlds without the natural resources we are rapidly exhausting here on earth.

We are going to need all those skills on earth eventually. Why not master them as part of an adventure instead of at the last minute and possibly too late, in desperation?

 

[HopDavid]

But doesn’t the fuel spent dropping all of that hardware on the Moon, not to mention the price of the hardware, negate any fuel savings you get back out?

If your goal is flags and footprint sortie missions, definitely.

If your goal is a sustained human presence on Mars and elsewhere, definitely not. The investment would yield a return far beyond initial investment.

Especially when we still haven’t come up with super good reasons to be out there.
We don’t send man into space for logical reasons. We send them for emotional reasons.

To break the boundaries limiting the human race.

Presently we are limited to the surface of the earth. Our solar energy consumption is limited by earth's cross section area presented to the sun.

Breaking these boundaries would increase available energy and real estate by several orders of magnitude.

 

[MeteorWayne]

Since this topic is not related to a Mission or a Launch, I will move it to SB&T.