re: The Moon
The Moon has more inspired authors (before the first satellites) than low earth orbit...Certainly because it's another world, therefore another destination.
I'm sure the human mind would have coped with whatever world the Moon could have been. There are always some people with a lot of imagination and others ready to listen and understand what an idea could mean.
The Moon is definitely very inhospitable but it is very close and that asset might count a lot more than what it's made of.
Raoul