I think they will find ice- millions of tons of it. If so, it is the same as earth; plentiful water and easy to process. With fewer restrictions leaving lunar orbit under nuclear power it will be more economical to fill up in Lunar orbit, check everything and then head out. My opinion. I have no use at all for commercial space. I believe it is fundamentally counterproductive to HSF.

Overall, Bolden is a great guy and looks like he has the making of a very good Administrator, but, of course, Lori Garver, Deputy Administrator is wonderful in the role and it was good having her “come home”.

If you get a chance, attend the International Space development Conference in Huntsville next May.

See http://artsnova.com/blog/2010/05/29/373/

So, you’re saying that massive shielding is a requirement for BEO human exploration. For the moment, I will ignore the lightweight
options that use magnetic fields and other such EM mechanisms.
Let’s assume you are right.

Another of the great things about liquid water is that it is compact
and (relatively) free on Earth. That means a fairly small reusable vehicle can send a nice chunk of it (hundreds – low thousands of pounds) to orbit. Now, the question becomes whether it’s cheaper to launch and install the sift-the-regolith-for-water facility on the moon, or simply provide tax credits for RLV developers who can cheaply launch the water. (After all, losing water isn’t like losing cargo or a small satellite, or a human passenger.) If we can’t develop cheaper access to space with a guaranteed market for water in LEO… we can’t ever do it.

And, of course, the benefits beyond the cheaper shielding in LEO are pretty astronomical.

– Jim