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I would just like to note to everyone reading this thread: my e-mail has been changed from alex1s1emc22@icqmail.com to alex1s1emc23@icqmail.com due to an accidental deletion of my original account: for anyone who cares, update your info.
Meteorites don't pose too much of a threat to Martian domes, perhaps enough that we would want to take some minor precautions, but nothing more. Even if a small one, which is the only real threat, punctured a colony-sized dome, it would take years for the air to leak out, so there is no threat. Large impacts are extremely improbable and impossible to plan for anyway [since everything would blow up upon impact].
That raises another question about domes. How do you deal with fire? A big fire would be extremely dangerous ; not only could it melt the dome apart, but it could fill a sealed dome with noxious gas, killing all those not already with pressure suits on.
I think that there are two big reasons for any single entity to go into space as of now.
1. To achieve social independence
2. To gain economically
These are highly interrelated. You cannot have (1) fufilled without a certian amount of (2), or your colony will go bankrupt. You can have (2), to a certian degree, without (1), but (1) will nevertheless serve to vastly facilitate (2)... ever heard of selling Martian real estate?
What does the Moon have of these things? Not very much, I'm afraid. At only three days away (less, with more advanced technology) from Earth, it really isn't the kind of home that your an independent organization or colony will prefer. Worse, the Moon's natural resources are frightenly lacking. It has no appreciable amounts of hydrogen, nitrogen and carbon, amoung other things John mentioned. I think it is clear that because of this simple fact we can't hope to establish a real civilization on the Moon.
On another topic altogether I think it is vital that we pursue (1) and (2) to colonize space. Social theory is nice as an aside, but unfortunately, nothing will come of anything unless there is motivation. And hard motivation can only come from (1) and (2). I think we need to put aside "the vision of space" and realize that space is here for us, and we are not going into space to go into space, we are going to accomplish a variety of things, chiefly, (1) and (2), and exploit the highly unique advantages that space has to offer.