Pardon me, but...what resources? The moon is barren. It has no atmosphere; no useful elements in any appreciable amount; nothing but the possibility of polar ice embedded in lunar rocks. Anyone living on the moon may as well be living in the middle of the Sahara.
I support going to the moon and using it as a stationary observation platform (imagine a ground-based Hubbell Space Telescope with a self-sustaning orbit) and used as a waystation for manned missions to Mars, but that's about the sum of it.
Helium-3 is very valuable and abundant on the moon. But I agree, it's a waste going to the moon.
I support going to the moon and using it ... as a waystation for manned missions to Mars
After leaving one gravity well, why would you enter another to get to Mars?
Excuse me? Billions upon billions of tons.
There are plenty of useful elements. Now "cost-effective" is another matter.
Iron ore (steel), copper, lead, titanium, silicon, etc. I won't name all of them (way too many to name), but in lunar soil there is oxygen atoms as well as considerable source of nitrogen and hydrogen.. most of the building blocks of life, just need to be extracted and processed to a readily usable form.
With a moon mining colony should be quite easy...
Where did you get the info about no useful elements in appreciable amount? They obviously given you mistaken information.
Read The High Frontier by Dr. Gerard K. O'Neill or Islands in the Sky (not sure author)
I would love to have a self-sustaning telescope on the moon!
I just wounder why we never here, (At least I haven't seen)anything more about the mars rovers?
Did the little martians take them for a joy ride and not bring them back?... : ) <<< me