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Inhabitants have populated every section of Earth and, within the past two decades, are dissolving many of its natural resources. As a consequence of depleted natural resources, the costs for simple necessities such as food or gas are driven past their price ceilings. As people stop buying goods, companies go bankrupt and many people lose their jobs. Commercialization of Earth has brought many benefits for humankind; however, it has also brought many environmental problems. For example, the ozone lay is depleting at an alarming rate with the accumulation of many human-made chemicals. Such problems include killing of food crops and food-bearing plants. Fortunately, there remains one final frontier that has yet been explored—the solar system, particularly the moon. The moon has various natural resources and profit potential that have remained untapped for close to 4.5 billion years. Exploitation of these resources is a viable option that would be a significant alternative to the dissolution of Earth’s natural resources. In addition, there are many prospects for using the moon as a conductor of solar energy and process-based plants. Thus, the most feasible solution to the need of “expansion,” is commercializing the moon.

The U.S. Geological Survey suggested that if the global economic trend of depleting resources continues, then resources such as iron would deplete in a matter of sixty years. Further, iron prices will increase exponentially within the timeframe. Fortunately, iron is found in a prevalent phase that occurs within several minerals with different crystal structures. These minerals—Kamacite, Taenite, and Tetrataenite—can be formed by several different process, including igneous crystallization and reduction of oxides...

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...ood. Power would initially be obtained by solar energy. After building an outpost, breathable air might be obtainable through harvesting oxygen from the regolith. Water is the biggest challenge. Water is quite expensive to transport, shipping one gallon would cost approximately 400 thousand dollars. One alternative is shipping liquid nitrogen and mixing it with oxygen when it arrives to create water or mining a potential water source locate at the south pole of the moon. On the other hand, food must be shipped periodically to maintain the outpost’s consumption; food production on the moon will take at least two years. In addition, lunar oxygen and water will be easily produced once helium-3 production commences.

According to NASA, the approximate cost of an orbiter-spaceship is 1.7 billion dollars and the average cost of each mission is about 450 million dollars.