re what if the ussr had reached the moon first in article apr ke zv uucp gary ke zv uucp gary coffman says in article saundrsg qucdn queensu ca graydon saundrsg qucdn queensu ca writes this is turning into what s a moonbase good for and i ought not to post when i ve a hundred some odd posts to go but i would think that the real reason to have a moon base is economic since someone with space industry will presumeably have a much larger gnp than they would without space industry eventually they will simply be able to afford more stuff if i read you right you re saying in essence that with a larger economy nations will have more discretionary funds to waste on a lunar facility that was certainly partially the case with apollo but real lunar colonies will probably require a continuing military scientific or commercial reason for being rather than just a we have the money why not approach i was assuming that there won t be a moon base unless it makes a profit actually if it does well that gives a larger gnp which leads to being able to spend more money on your military including gosh wow space stuff assuming it s profitable rather than paying for itself it s conceivable that luna will have a military purpose it s possible that luna will have a commercial purpose but it s most likely that luna will only have a scientific purpose for the next several hundred years at least therefore lunar bases should be predicated on funding levels little different from those found for antarctic bases can you put a person base on the moon for million a year even if you use grad students you might be able to run one for that put it there hardly why do you think at least a couple centuries before there will be significant commerical activity on the moon graydon
