Quote:
Originally Posted by Ulzgoroth
Why not? It's not like you need every launch to carry two men and their consumables. Most of them would, of course, be unmanned cargo flights.
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I think the point is not that they couldn't put a moonbase there, but that any moonbase would not be industrially productive- there's not much you can mine or manufacture on the moon that can't be obtained far more cheaply on earth. We could have built a moonbase with Apollo-era tech, if we really wanted to, but it would have been done for the same combination of research and national prestige that motivated the actual landings rather than because it made "economic sense".