Moon Farming.

The moon remained a vacant lot in a bad neighborhood -- until last month, when TransOrbital Inc. became the first private company granted government permission to explore, photograph and land there. What's fueling this moon rush is not just a juicy balance sheet, but a pulp fantasy version of the frontier. Rather than belonging to the Earth, lunar soil would belong to whoever staked a claim and had the best business model.

"It is necessary for humankind to move off-planet, and in the near future, if we are not to stagnate," TransOrbital executive Paul Blase says. And if the moon isn't turned into a commercial space, "then we are limiting ourselves to an observational presence only ... This will be only signing a suicide pact."
AlterNet