Cyberpunk vs Reality <Rant warning.>

"Why don't we land robots on the moon to build a base/mine materials for
us?"

Mostly for the same reason we don't stop using all these silly wheel
things and build anti-gravity cars: Because no-one knows how to do that!
Look at a modern steel mill and you will find people working the
machinary, not robots. If a robot can't shift things safely and reliably
around the werehouse (which they can't) what chance do they have on the
moon? Now sure, technology can (eventually and in theory) make all things
possible, but our current and likely near future understanding of it make
somethings impractical or inadvisable.

Sometimes doing things the old fashioned and boring way, using tried and
tested technologies, is better than gambeling (sometimes against all
reason, experience and common sense) that you can develop a dozen
different technologies from scratch and somehow make them all work.

ANTIcarrot.