reality check

> ...What is a bottle
> neck is we do not know how to make that seed self-replicating factory,
> or have plans for what it should create once it is landed on the moon or
> on a near-earth asteroid.

It probably doesn't need, at first, any more than how to build more power,
mining, and manufacturing equipment. It's going to need a good bit of time to
get the whole operation ramped up that way. If it's made versatile enough,
whether the moonbase builds a mass driver system to deliver components to L5
for a space station, or a moon base for human habitation, or a radio telescope
for astronomy can be decided later.