7. Generate power

Space if full of free solar power. There are no clouds on the Moon. Those two facts make setting up a lunar power station sensible in the minds of some futurists. The power could be beamed to Earth or to satellites for distribution around the world, 24/7.

A lunar power station won't be built in a day. But some visionaries think any scheme to return to the Moon ought to include plans to eventually route power back home.

"By mid 21st Century, enough lunar solar power can be imported Earthward to supply the world's population of 10 billion people to meet all basic human needs," says advocate David Criswell, director of the Institute for Space Systems Operations at the University of Houston in Texas.

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