Spaceflight

It is a lot of infrastructure and fuel. If you're going to the moon, mine Luna. The moon is nearly impossible to orbit sustainably long term due to gravitational anomalies. Plus there are a large number of negatives to the moon that are not as much of a problem in cislunar space. The biggest issue will likely be micrometeorites. The larger body will attract more of these.

I know people talk about the volcanic tubes, but I believe this will not be viable in practice. The lack of atmospheric oxidation and weathering will likely turn these places into untenable death chambers. Any habitat will inevitably generate atmospheric gas leaks and massive temperature variations, along with other environmental factors. The impact that these will have when the surrounding regolith and geology have never been exposed to large scale oxidation or other forces will be very significant and unlike anything on Earth. I picture this like trying to build a long term camp site in a glacial cave that is built on a volatile gas upwelling location hidden under a thin permafrost. I would much rather see a station built around the near Earth astroid where in situ resources can be used more directly. I think large scale infrastructure will be hard, and ultimately, most of humanity will end up in cislunar space as this is ultimately the cheapest and most efficient in terms of engineering problems.

My biggest question is if it is more practical to develop full elemental cycle integration with lifw, or some kind of massive autonomous system. I imagine it will likely come down to a need to increase complexity of systems and develop a hybrid approach.