[Hostage]

The Moon has plenty if oxygen, trapped in rock. The technology to recover it is known, available, tested. It’s not a problem.

It’s the lack of nitrogen and hydrogen that make it challenging to build a long-term base on the Moon.

To shuttle liquid H2 and N2 from the Earth would require enormous thrust as those liquid forms are quite heavy. It would also require a lunar orbiting station for shuttling supplies and materials back and forth to the lunar surface.

But it could be done.

Having a Moon base is actually a good idea because launching probes and expeditions from the Moon is so much easier than from Earth (gravity differential).

[Red Badger]

It’s the lack of nitrogen and hydrogen that make it challenging to build a long-term base on the Moon.

https://www.nasa.gov/content/goddard/lro-lunar-hydrogen/

[wally_bert]

Avoid storing excess nuclear waste and the moon base should be fine.

[ckilmer]

I read somewhere that a big reason for building the portable 4th generation nuclear reactors that rely on some variant of liquid fluoride thorium is that they can be used for space travel.

[Telepathic Intruder]

"Having a Moon base is actually a good idea because launching probes and expeditions from the Moon is so much easier than from Earth"

Completely true, but oxygen in rocks is extremely difficult to remove. The key is water. Water has both hydrogen and oxygen and are easily separated. Water would be required for manufacturing as well as life support. Large quantities of the stuff are known to exist in permanently shadowed craters on the poles of the moon, as discovered by LCROSS.

With Obama we had close to zero chance of further advances in space. He was more interested in gutting the space program than advancing it. Trump, for all I've heard him say, is committed to space exploration.