The long term advantage I see is that it would be much easier to build a space elevator on the moon. And if industry can be established there, then you could build the components on the moon, and send them up to orbit. This opens up the rest of the solar system and massive scale space construction that's simply not possible when doing launches from the Earth. Also, a moon base could be largely self sufficient once it's bootstrapped since we know there's water on the moon. I personally would love to see humanity create a serious outpost that's off planet.
The long term advantage I see is that it would be much easier to build a space elevator on the moon. And if industry can be established there, then you could build the components on the moon, and send them up to orbit. This opens up the rest of the solar system and massive scale space construction that's simply not possible when doing launches from the Earth. Also, a moon base could be largely self sufficient once it's bootstrapped since we know there's water on the moon. I personally would love to see humanity create a serious outpost that's off planet.