I think you can credibly argue that humans with some tools can get a lot more done in a shorter period of time at that location than robots can, for now. And despite being "fragile", putting humans on the Moon and bringing them back alive is a solved problem.
It is expensive to send humans to the Moon, but those costs will come down, to the point where people without government backing can go there. Then you can see costs of govt missions go down since the Beltway bandit cost-plus price will no longer be the only price.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by takyon on Saturday June 15 2019, @04:23AM
We are putting robots there:
NASA Selects Three Companies to Land Science Payloads on the Moon [soylentnews.org]
I think you can credibly argue that humans with some tools can get a lot more done in a shorter period of time at that location than robots can, for now. And despite being "fragile", putting humans on the Moon and bringing them back alive is a solved problem.
It is expensive to send humans to the Moon, but those costs will come down, to the point where people without government backing can go there. Then you can see costs of govt missions go down since the Beltway bandit cost-plus price will no longer be the only price.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]