The Moon as a Stepping Stone

The Nearest Neighbor

Step outside on a crisp night, and the Moon hangs there like an old friend. It is bright enough to cast shadows, close enough to feel almost reachable, yet distant enough to stir wonder. For millennia it has inspired poets, sailors, and scientists. Today, it calls to engineers and explorers.

For our journey to Mars, the Moon is not just scenery in the sky. It is our nearest laboratory for learning how to live and work away from Earth. It is a proving ground, a place where we can test systems, train crews, and develop the resilience that will be essential for deep space missions.

It is also close enough for help to arrive if something goes wrong, three days away by rocket, rather than months. In other words, the Moon is the perfect halfway house between Earth’s cradle and the Red Planet’s frontier.

Why the Moon First?

The logic is simple: before we can thrive on Mars, we must master the art of living somewhere else. The Moon offers:

Proximity for Practice. Missions can be shorter, supply chains simpler, and communications almost instantaneous compared to Mars.
Real Conditions. Microgravity, radiation, and extreme temperature swings provide an authentic testbed for habitats and life-support systems.
Resources. Lunar regolith contains oxygen bound in minerals, and the Moon’s poles hold water ice, both crucial for fuel and drinking water.

NASA’s Artemis program is designed around this very concept: return to the Moon, build a sustained presence, and use it as a launchpad to Mars. Similarly, international partners are planning lunar bases and infrastructure that could feed directly into interplanetary travel.

The Moon as a Mars Training Ground

Technically, the Moon and Mars are different worlds: the Moon is airless, with lower gravity (1/6 of Earth’s), and lacks the thin atmosphere Mars has. But the parallels are strong enough that lunar operations will sharpen the skills we need for Mars:

Habitat Construction. Learning to build pressurized living spaces from local material will prepare us for Martian regolith-based structures.
Closed-Loop Life Support. Recycling air and water, growing food indoors, and managing waste will be essential in both environments.
Surface Mobility. Driving rovers across cratered terrain, navigating in dust, and managing power will mirror Martian exploration.

In essence, the Moon is a classroom where the lessons are real, and the stakes are high, but the cost of failure is not yet catastrophic.

From Orbit to Gateway

One key stepping-stone project is the Lunar Gateway, a small space station in lunar orbit, developed by NASA and its partners. It will serve as a hub for astronauts traveling to and from the Moon, and later as a departure point for Mars-bound ships.

By operating in the deep-space environment just beyond Earth’s protective magnetic field, crews will gain vital experience with radiation shielding, autonomous operations, and long-duration isolation. This is deep space in miniature, far enough to be a challenge, close enough to be manageable.

Economic and Industrial Foundations

Lunar exploration is not just about practice; it can become part of the supply chain for Mars missions. Water ice can be split into hydrogen and oxygen for rocket fuel, reducing the need to haul propellant from Earth. Metals and minerals can be mined for building structures in orbit.

The Moon’s shallow gravity well means it takes far less energy to launch goods from its surface than from Earth’s. In time, the Moon could host fuel depots, manufacturing plants, and staging facilities for interplanetary fleets. This is the beginning of a space economy, a network of outposts, stations, and factories that makes Mars missions more affordable and sustainable.

Stewardship Close to Home

From a biblical perspective, the Moon is part of “the heavens, the work of [God’s] fingers” (Psalm 8:3). To steward it well is to reflect the Creator’s care, even as we extend human presence outward. The Cultural Mandate calls us to explore and cultivate; the Great Commission calls us to carry the gospel wherever we go.

A lunar base, then, is not just a technical achievement. It is a community, however small, where worship can happen, disciples can be made, and the rhythms of faith can be lived out in a new environment. The Moon offers us the chance to learn how to be both explorers and image-bearers in space.

Lessons from History

Past frontiers on Earth were often rushed, driven by greed or competition, with little thought for sustainability or justice. The Moon gives us a chance to do things differently. Here we can:

Build cooperation among nations and companies.
Establish ethical guidelines for resource use.
Integrate spiritual life from the start, so that exploration and worship grow together.

If we can practice these values on the Moon, we can carry them to Mars and beyond.

Step Onto the First Rung

The Moon is the first rung on the ladder to the stars. We can reach it now; we can work there within this decade. To ignore it would be to skip the training that could mean the difference between success and tragedy on Mars.

For engineers, it means designing systems that can be tested in the lunar environment. For policymakers, it means investing in sustained programs rather than one-off “flags and footprints” missions. For the Church, it means imagining what it would look like to plant a worshiping, serving community under the cold light of the lunar horizon.

If we take the Moon seriously, we will arrive at Mars not as tourists or desperate survivors, but as prepared stewards, ready to build, ready to serve, ready to proclaim the glory of God from one world to another.

The Moon is not the end. But it is where the journey to Mars begins.