[whatsupdog]

Not really, rivers flow into oceans where there is life that is impacted by the chemicals, not to mention the life in the river itself. So its not the same rationale. Moon IS a lifeless rock. I agree with the parent, if there was an option between trashing the earth and moon, I would pick moon in a heartbeat.

[somenameforme]

It's not just a lifeless rock, it's a horribly inhospitable location. You go through 2 week long days of hotter than boiling temperatures followed by 2 week long nights that are about as close to absolute zero as they are to 'just' freezing. All the while you're getting constantly pounded by meteorites, to say nothing of more typical issues like radiation, dust, and so on.

It's why I think the idea of starting with the Moon as a jumping-off to Mars is illogical. Mars is much further but is a million times more hospitable in every other way, and has presumably much more to offer in term of unknown unknowns than the Moon. We only found out that Martian regolith is relatively water rich (about 2% water by volume) in 2013, which is kind of insane if you consider that the first probe successfully sent to Mars was in 1962.