Future large-scale space activities will require a high degree of autonomy from Earth, with extensive reliance upon nonterrestrial sources of energy and materials. Ambitious missions require large masses of consumables, such as propellants and life-support fluids, which traditionally have been launched from Earth. But launch costs from Earth are so high that the greatest advantage would be realized by launching small masses of processing equipment rather than large masses of intrinsically cheap, abundant, and easily manufactured materials, such as oxygen, water, liquid hydrogen, structural metals, and radiation shielding. Each of the various objects in the solar system has unique potential in terms of resource extraction.

An artist's rendition of a mining operation on the Moon. In the future, industrial operations on the Moon could increase the likelihood of lunar settlement.

The Moon

Operations on the Moon would benefit greatly from the use of unprocessed regolith for...