A colony on the moon without water? .

Here's that excerpt again:

Using the highest resolution radar-signal images ever made of the
moon - images from the National Science Foundation's (NSF) Arecibo
Telescope in Arecibo, P.R., and the NSF's Robert C. Byrd Telescope in
Green Bank, W.Va. - planetary astronomers have found no evidence for
ice in craters at the lunar south pole. Cornell University,
Smithsonian Institution and Australian scientists report the findings
in the latest Nature (Oct. 19, 2006).

"These new results do not preclude ice being present as small grains
in the lunar soil based on the Lunar Prospector's discovery of
enhanced hydrogen concentrations at the lunar poles," said Donald
Campbell, Cornell professor of astronomy and a principal
investigator. "There is always the possibility that concentrated
deposits exist in a few of the shadowed locations not visible to
radars on Earth, but any current planning for landers or bases at the
lunar poles should not count on this."

http://www.moondaily.com/reports/No_Lunar_Polar_Ice_Sheets_Found_In_Hi
gh_Resolution_Radar_Images_999.html

No water and no economic promise - nothing worth exporting at all.

Most everything would have to be imported from space, which, if paid for,
helps make space a little more profitable for space entrepreneurs and
developers.

So it seems the moon, if any of a handfull of residents can eek it out,
becomes a sort of orbital Nevada dependent on tourism, gambling, military
bases, prostitution, public assistance, and speedy marriage services.

George
cygo.com