Do we actually have the technology for a permanent Moon outpost?

Do we have the technology to go to the Moon now, and stay this time? I'm not talking about the political will or economic rationale for doing so, I just want to know if there are any unsolved (and difficult to solve) problems that would prevent us from doing so in the very near future. If you're hurting for a cap on spending, let's say a state or company consortium were willing to invest a trillion dollars every decade for 3 decades into the project, about the cost of an Iraq war or two.

I've recently asked a question about lunar space elevators, and it appears that they would be quite viable. If that's the case, a persuasive argument could be made that the first power to colonize the moon would get a decisive lead in access to space by colonizing the moon and using its physical resources for the infrastructure build-out needed to lay claim to the rest of the solar system.

EDIT: To clarify the scope of the base, I'm thinking a facility that's as automated as possible, with a staff of as little as 100 people, designed to churn out refined materials from lunar ores for deploying vast solar panel fleets into space, and to use and maintain lunar space elevators for this purpose.

posted about 8 years ago

Serban Tanasa‭

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