The lunar south pole mentioned in the article has two features which could make it economically important: cold traps, possibly containing large quantities of w

The lunar south pole mentioned in the article has two features which could make it economically important: cold traps, possibly containing large quantities of water ice [1] and nearby peaks of nearly eternal light [2]. Put the two together, and you can build a solar-powered ice mining, oxygen- and hydrogen-producing operation to fuel your rockets and keep your astronauts properly hydrated and oxygenated. Even if you're only interested in near-Earth space, this could be cheaper than lifting the same amount of stuff from the bottom of our gravitational well. But before you can do all that, you need to explore the place in detail, and then build the facility. Doing it all using only robots could be harder than having a few humans on the ground. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lunar_south_pole#Cold_traps https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lunar_south_pole#Cold_traps [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peak_of_eternal_light#Lunar_south_pole https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peak_of_eternal_light#Lunar_so...