In Wells' The First Men In The Moon, the lunar surface has a breathable atmosphere by day but it freezes at night. In ERB's The Moon Maid, there is a breathable atmosphere on the Moon's inner surface. Like the ERBian Earth (see here), the Moon is a hollow sphere, internally inhabited. Increased scientific knowledge has made such stories impossible except in the recent sub-genre of retro-sf.
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Kaor, Paul!
And you already know from my comment to your "Terraforming," how I love the idea of terraforming Venus and the Moon! I quoted some relevant parts from "Srange Bedfellows" to scientifically knowledgeable persons, and they both thought it was possible.
And I would not agree with people who thought it was somehow a desecration of Venus or the Moon to terraform them. Why NOT turn inhospitable worlds into new homes for mankind? I reject as well claims that since we have so many problems now we should not bother about space till we take care of them. If we did that we will NEVER leave Earth, because we will always have problems. In fact, the changes, advances, discoveries, etc., from expanding into space might make many of our old problems irrelevant and unimportant.
And, yes, such a new, space oriented civilization will also have problems, but it's still much better to be OFF Earth than to forever be cowering and huddling here! In fact, a turning away from space could be FATAL for us, as Anderson shows us in "Murphy's Hall."
Sean
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