No kidding. Using the Moon as a base to begin the economic exploitation of Space. . .now THAT’s a proposal I can support.
Lunar mining to support a construction shack, to build powersats. Orbital refining of asteroidal metals and other minerals.
It’s raining soup out there, and the people who say “Spend on Earth FIRST” don’t want us to invest in soup bowls.
And where DOES space spending get spent ? On AMERICAN companies like Boeing and Lockheed and Northrop-Grumman, building rockets and infrastructure HERE. Good, Solid High-Tech jobs that you can’t readily export. . .
As far as space mining goes, 433 Eros would seem to be the best bet.
“It has more gold, silver, zinc, aluminum and other metals than have ever, or could ever be mined from the upper levels of Earth’s crust.”
My guess would be that a robot ship would land on it, as the NEAR Shoemaker probe has already done, then it would crudely process tons of ore into a several ton big metal ball, then extend it out into space on a tether, using the asteroids own rotation to accelerate it, before finally releasing it on a Lunar orbit intercept path. Once captured there, it could be put on a much more stable path to Earth orbit, where it would be captured again, then parachuted to Earth.
Can’t do that if they’re taxed to death.
Imagine how much we could do if we had the fairtax going. ZERO tax on corporations! The productive ability of the country would be tantamount to an explosion. Tens of millions of jobs would be spontaneously created.
Building an armada of Rockets to send remote mining and construction equipment to the moon is the best shovel ready project, it will definitely bring high tech jobs and if we can eventually build a self sufficient lunar colony we can move from having all our eggs in one basket to having a sort of backup for humanity if you will.
I say we strip mine the moon and turn it into a giant solar paneled disco ball in the sky and use it to build giant orbital habitats, giant solar power stations for the earth and maybe even a jumping point to planetary and interstellar colonization!