. . . Not the corporate kind, anyway.

1) save NASA and the taxpayers the cost of developing affordable space transport by allowing private enterprise to assume the burden of settling space

And -- what’s going to make “private industry” think there is a good monetary return in this little endeavor?

2) make it possible for ordinary people to purchase tickets and visit the Moon as tourists, scientists, or entrepreneurs

Not without point #1.

3) create vast wealth from what is now utterly worthless

Not without point #1.

We have the power to create a "pot of gold" waiting on the Moon, to attract and reward whatever companies can be the first to assemble and risk enough capital and talent to establish a "space line" and lunar settlement.



How? By making it possible to claim and own -- and re-sell to those back home on Earth -- the product that has always rewarded those who paid for human expansion: land ownership.





Without a viable source of food, water, shielding, and community, this pipe-dream is an empty one. A lunar dust-castle.

The solution, however, does remain one of private industry, and one which could be realized within our lifetime. Ironically, it is also a solution that leans toward improving human longevity. Nanotech. Biotech. Within these lie the ambitions and destiny of all humanity. Within these may be found the Universe.

As for owning a piece of the lunar rock, when I get there I’ll claim squatter’s rights,
Dan