The cost of getting to the Moon is too high to sustain permanent human habitats. People and equipment for small stations can be transported via rockets, but even small habitats are unlikely to be sustainable because of the cost of rocket trips from Earth. Tens of millions of dollars are spent to put a single human in orbit; that will never do.
Permanent settlements won’t be sustainable if rockets are the only means to support human habitats on the Moon.
It’s the huge gravity well of Earth and the lesser one of the Moon that are likely to keep humanity off of the Moon. Rockets are expensive and most of the weight of a launch goes into fuel and boosters that are completely used up. Payloads are small and the dollar-per-pound cost is enormous.
Two engineers have already made the cost of transporting cargo from Earth orbit to lunar orbit cheaper with their new solar-enhanced lightships. Now they have an idea for creating a much cheaper approach to beating the gravity wells. With the support of Smith Space Industries, their target is to bring costs down enough to make the Moon a second permanent home for humanity. Trips to Earth orbit have to be cheaper, but that’s only a start on the company’s program to make life on the Moon sustainable.
Rockets cannot be the whole solution. In the new plan, nothing will be thrown away. What goes into space and travels to the Moon will be used and reused to make the Moon humanity’s first home away from Earth. Rockets will become a minor part of the grand plan.