[ It’s not impossible. We will need to invent a process other than Kroll or Cambridge to do it, is all, a process that uses lunar materials and solar power.
One we humans have a permanent base on the moon, then real development can start. We do need to work out the basics before we go.
One very useful thing will be a means of storing He3 until someone learns how to burn it in a fusion reactor.
The Moon would be the perfect place for a beanstalk launcher, then we can go to Mars and set up a mine or two there, with a Mars base/beanstalk used as a launch point for asteroid mining. ]
With curtrent tech we could build moon mining robots that are teleoperated that could mine and refine and build dtructures out of lunar materials. Only after you build a mostly furnished lunar base using robots would you then send humans to live there.
I like the idea of building a “Van Neuman” factory on the moon building more factories which build solar panels on the moon using lunar materials to build a “Solar Belt” around the entire moon circumference. It might look ugly from earth, but it would provide enough energy to power full scale colonization of the moon and would wrap around the entire moon providing power 100% to any lunar establishment and power could even be relayed via microwave satelites back to earth.
I remember a science fiction story in which we sent up robots and teleoperated machines, and we dug deep trenches. We then took the stuff we dug up and fused it into panels, which we fused into boxes, which we put in the trenches and fused them together, then covered them up with more lunar dust and rubble.
A tunnel base underground, using the sun, a nuke reactor, and totally indigenous materials.