Return to the Moon: Exploration, Enterprise, and Energy in the Human Settlement of Space [Hardcover]

Former NASA Astronaut Harrison Schmitt advocates a private, investor-based approach to returning humans to the Moonto extract Helium 3 for energy production, to use the Moon as a platform for science and manufacturing, and to establish permanent human colonies there in a kind of stepping stone community on the way to deeper space. With governments playing a supporting rolejust as they have in the development of modern commercial aeronautics and agricultural productionSchmitt believes that a fundamentally private enterprise is the only type of organization capable of sustaining such an effort and, eventually, even making it pay off.

Apollo: The Legacy.- Energy: The Global Future.- Booster: Moon Rocket Economics.- Fusion: Helium-3 Power Economics.- Resources: Lunar Helium-3 Economics.- Settlement: Helium-3 Production Economics.- Approaches: Organizatonal Options for a Return.- Management: Lessons from Apollo.- NASA: Restructuring for Deep Space.- Investors: The Best Approach.- Law: Space Resources.- Humans: Roles in Space.- Implications.

From the reviews:

There have been many books written about the future lunar exploration and the long-term benefits to the Moon's and Earth's occupants of doing so. Only one book, however, has been written by a man who has actually been to the Moon, explored its surface, and knows firsthand the economic benefits locked in the Moon's regolith. Harrison Scmitt's Return to the Moon will serve as a blueprint for how to achieve this and contribute to making the Vision for Space Exploration a reality.

Anthony Young, The Space Review, January 3, 2006

Astronaut geologist Harrison Schmitt outlines his vision of a Return to the Moon, and the mining of helium 3 to provide a future energy source for the earth. & The result is an erudite and persuasive thesis & . This is an important book and one that really shouldl£&