Riding the Emptiness

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 transporting everything from Earth.

Permanent settlements won't be sustainable if rockets are the only means to support human habitats on the Moon.

It's beating the huge gravity well of Earth and the lesser one of the Moon that is 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.

Kevin and Arturo have already made the cost of transporting cargo from Earth orbit to the Moon cheaper. Now they have an idea for creating a much cheaper approach to getting people into orbit around the Earth. They work for Smith Space Industries, whose target is to bring costs down enough to make the Moon a second permanent home for humanity. Making trips to Earth orbit cheaper is a start, but only a start on the company's program to make life on the Moon sustainable. To the extent possible, 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 for Earth.