I look forward to what they find, hopefully water. And if they don't at least they've the accomplishment of the landing which will lead to bigger and better things.
We found evidence a while back of water in the bottom of some lunar craters what we don't know is if there is enough. I can see perhaps a robotic facilty on the moon in the future to refuel space craft on their way to other places in the solar system after all the single biggest fuel cost for a space ship is getting off earth. but then it would become obsolete the moment some one manages to invent a safe working fusion drive.
Its assumed that some of the asteroids in the belt are ice. They would make good fuel if we can tow them to where we need it. It would be slow, but current drone tech could likely handle it.
It's about the twice distance from the earth to the orbit of mars as it is to the asteroid belt. Now it is thought that most of the stuff in the Khyber Belt is ice but not so the asteroid belt but the khyber belt is out past Pluto
Ya, 20 year round trip to Pluto and back. If we'd started sending out collection drones 20 years ago, instead of, say warring around the ME, we'd already be mining them for fuel. Or close to it, given the trip back with a chunk of ice in tow is prolly slower.
I can see the moon most every night. Who in their right mind would want to go there? There's no return on investment. You want return on investment -- buying Alaska was the way to go. But the moon is not good real estate.
