[dylan604]

If you're a private company looking to build a mining base station, tourist hotel, or any other thing a private company might want to do, then it's best to get the kinks worked out by practicing with an unmanned lander a few times first

[krisoft]

> mining base station

What would you be mining on the moon and what for?

[FredPret]

Rmemeber that whatever you mine up there is valuable because of the position further out of our gravity well, not just because of mineral content

[krisoft]

Okay, but that asks the same question: What do you want to use the stuff for?

Imagine that I told you that I have a new venture to mine slate in the arctic. And when asked I would tell you that it is very expensive to transport slate from the already existing mines to the arctic, which makes the arctic mined slate that much more valuable. You would immediately see that this is true, as long as there is someone who wants slate in the arctic, and very much not true if there is nobody there who needs pretty roofs or blackboards.

Somehow with space this is less obvious?

[FredPret]

You can't build anything useful or fun with slate in the arctic.

But you can set up low/zero g manufacturing on/near the moon, military installations, incredible observatories, and unique tourist facilities.

You can also set up space habs / moon bases for people to live in in the far future which would spread our bets as a species in a way that living in the arctic doesn't.

[dylan604]

If I told you that, I'd break my NDA and lose my job. If you're so curious, go fund your own start up ;-)

I have no idea. One movie suggested H3. Others think mining water ice would be an idea. Others think you can use the regolith to 3D print stuff. I'm not the private company launching lunar landers, but I was just making up hypotheticals on why someone might want to practice landing things on the moon.

[throwaway743]

Helium-3 for fusion.