system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
ELI5: Why are we trying to colonize Mars before the moon?
gpt
Because (oddly enough) Mars might be easier. 

We could (theoretically) convert Mars to a near Earth-like state.  Mars has gravity (though much less than Earth's), Mars has an atmosphere (though its thin and not hospitable).  

The Moon is worse than Mars in those categories.

We'll never colonize the Moon.  It'll max out at moon bases but no human will ever walk around the Moon without equipment.  Mars though, we might someday get it to be a 2nd Earth.  

Plus anything that kills the Earth is gonna probably kill the Moon too.  If we need to be somewhere else, better to be WAY somewhere else.