<story><title>China&apos;s Moon mission sees first seeds sprout</title><url>https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-46873526</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>worldsayshi</author><text>Sure, becoming 100% self sufficient wouldn&amp;#x27;t be a reasonable short term goal but I can&amp;#x27;t imagine there being any product worth trading in the long term over such distance and given such cost for logistics?</text></item><item><author>simion314</author><text>But why should you have a 100% complete industry, a colony can trade with Earth like countries trade with each other, a colony could trade some rare resources and buy high tech stuff.&lt;p&gt;The main obstacle a colony will have is the initial buildings&amp;#x2F;bunker with all the life support and safety tech, plus extra redundancy and a backup plan if something bad happens there or on Earth .&lt;p&gt;If the colony would manage to generate enough oxygen,food, water and energy for itself that is the important first step. Next step would probably be producing the heavy parts they need for expansions like metal or similar solid materials for walls and machinery, the lighter parts could be sent from Earth.</text></item><item><author>worldsayshi</author><text>To me it seems that the greatest obstacle to space colonization would be maintenance and production of materials and technology needed to sustain and expand the colony. Seems like the last step for truly becoming self sustaining.&lt;p&gt;You&amp;#x27;d need extremely small scale factories that can build everything needed for a modern civilization.&lt;p&gt;I wonder what that would take. What the smallest amount of shipments and time would be. Would guess that electronics would be one of the last things you&amp;#x27;d learn to make yourself.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>simion314</author><text>I imagine that in the beginning you will have mostly scientific facilities , like telescopes on the dark side of the moon(you will need scientist, technicians and other stuff around this big telescopes).&lt;p&gt;There could also be facilities for experiments that can&amp;#x27;t be done on Earth, like things that can grow better on low gravity, there may be materials&amp;#x2F;gases that are rare on Earth and we could grab from asteroids so having space stations and bases around the solar system would be helpful.</text></comment>
<story><title>China&apos;s Moon mission sees first seeds sprout</title><url>https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-46873526</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>worldsayshi</author><text>Sure, becoming 100% self sufficient wouldn&amp;#x27;t be a reasonable short term goal but I can&amp;#x27;t imagine there being any product worth trading in the long term over such distance and given such cost for logistics?</text></item><item><author>simion314</author><text>But why should you have a 100% complete industry, a colony can trade with Earth like countries trade with each other, a colony could trade some rare resources and buy high tech stuff.&lt;p&gt;The main obstacle a colony will have is the initial buildings&amp;#x2F;bunker with all the life support and safety tech, plus extra redundancy and a backup plan if something bad happens there or on Earth .&lt;p&gt;If the colony would manage to generate enough oxygen,food, water and energy for itself that is the important first step. Next step would probably be producing the heavy parts they need for expansions like metal or similar solid materials for walls and machinery, the lighter parts could be sent from Earth.</text></item><item><author>worldsayshi</author><text>To me it seems that the greatest obstacle to space colonization would be maintenance and production of materials and technology needed to sustain and expand the colony. Seems like the last step for truly becoming self sustaining.&lt;p&gt;You&amp;#x27;d need extremely small scale factories that can build everything needed for a modern civilization.&lt;p&gt;I wonder what that would take. What the smallest amount of shipments and time would be. Would guess that electronics would be one of the last things you&amp;#x27;d learn to make yourself.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>stubish</author><text>Maybe nothing worth shipping back to earth, but perhaps resources for shipping to orbit. Fuel, space ship components, or entire ships or satellites.&lt;p&gt;If nothing else, there is real estate. Might not be worth much, but there is a lot of it.</text></comment>