After Apollo, A Colony on the Moon
New York Times, May 28, 1967, by Isaac Asimov. This six page article explores the challenges a moon colony would need to face, and answers many of the common objections the average reader might make to the viability of a moon colony - including the question of "why."
With an almost frightening ability to foresee the future, Asimov warns that if the momentum of Apollo is lost, the settling of space might take place far into the future rather than as an extension of the Apollo program.
Considering what might happen if plans for a moon base are not formulated immediately (i.e., before the moon landings even occur), Asimov muses, "If we do not begin our preparations now, we face a halt of perhaps several years after we do reach the moon. And with that halt might come a loss of interest in the space program generally, a loss of psychological momentum that would stretch those years of delay into decades."
And here we are 37 years later - staring up at a moon long devoid of a human presence.
Original article available in the archives at www.nytimes.com