https://phys.org/news/2017-09-moon-lunar-village.html (AFP)
By 2040, a hundred people will live on the Moon, melting ice for water, 3D-printing homes and tools, eating plants grown in lunar soil, and competing in low-gravity, "flying" sports.
To those who mock such talk as science fiction, experts such as Bernard Foing, ambassador of the European Space Agency-driven "Moon Village" scheme, reply the goal is not only reasonable but feasible too.
At a European Planetary Science Congress in Riga this week, Foing spelt out how humanity could gain a permanent foothold on Earth's satellite, and then expand.
He likened it to the growth of the railways, when villages grew around train stations, followed by businesses.
By 2030, there could be an initial lunar settlement of six to 10 pioneers—scientists, technicians and engineers—which could grow to 100 by 2040, he predicted.
"In 2050, you could have a thousand and then... naturally you could envisage to have family" joining crews there, Foing told AFP .
(Score: 2, Interesting) by khallow on Tuesday September 26 2017, @12:18PM
The problem is density. I recall doing the calculations and getting that if one had a perfect collector on the Moon, one would get a few kilograms of hydrogen per square kilometer cross-section per year. The numbers get a lot better, if you get as close as you can to the Sun since the density of the solar wind goes up a lot as you get close, but it's still not going to be economic IMHO except possibly as an add on to some other far future operation (say anti-matter production).