Economic Bases of a Lunar Colony

Start with the most basic and necessary needs, scouring the elements from the land. Build up a basic infrastructure, then add items of popular interest, increase the comforts of home, and finally allow a few somewhat riskier endeavors that can't be done on Earth. While the earlier steps are more micromanaged, later ones are given less and less detail, as they are left for future generations to design and build for themselves.

Phase One "Landing on the Beach"

1. Research & Development:
     - establish power sources & storage:
nuclear fission and solar (photovoltaic or concentrated reflection) plus banks of lithium or vitreous batteries to maintain power through the long nights.
     - resource gathering and refining:
making the oxygen, aluminum, glass and other materials needed to build the basic habitats and living spaces
     - life support infrastructure:
water supplies, ventilation systems, heating and cooling, lighting, disposal & recycling of wastes, radiation shielding, gravity wheels?
     - developing industrial production:
standardized modular construction items, replacement parts for machines & vehicles, tool & die facilities, assembly lines, wiring & electronics, plumbing, air lock fittings
     - food production facilities:
insulated greenhouses, hydroponic and aeroponic media racks, solar replacement lighting, fishery pools, fruits & nuts, edible insects to consume excess vegetative production
     - mundane crafts production:
personal space suits, clothing & shoes, tablet-size computers, oxygen tanks, regolith filters, furniture, art, souvenirs

Phase Two "Expanding the Frontier"

2. Tourism and Entertainment:
     - history tours of Apollo sites, Earth watching, trekking & mountain climbing, space suit survival certification, spiritual retreats, celebrity tours & gambling

3. Astronomy:
     - far side radio telescopes, mega-array optical mirrors, dark sky surveys, Moon-in-depth studies, resource mapping, lava tube exploring

4. Magnetic levitation railways:
     - launch to orbit facilities, transportation to other settlements, military applications, asteroid collision defense?

5. Meteorite prospecting:
     - asteroid study, bombardment effects, resource claims & recovery, mining for metals

6. Medical solutions:
     - zero gee recovery, cardiac stress reduction, experimental techniques,  nanotech microsurgery, pharmaceutical research, mineral dust infiltration reduction & tissue repair

7. Isolated research projects:
NERVA spacecraft design, testing & construction, ultrahigh energy lasers, near lightspeed physics, gravity wave mapping, dark matter experiments

8. Resupply for outbound missions:
fuel & oxygen, recycling wastes, minor repairs & spares, food & water, launch pads & gantry

Phase Three "Manifest Destiny"

     - Domes for new towns
     - Tunnels and caves
     - Web network of train lines
     - Immigration influx
     - Build your own spaceships
     - Trade relations between destinations
     - Illuminating our 8th continent
     - Building orbital infrastructure
     - Developing practical Space Law
     - Taming the near frontier

But there is a big problem standing in the way of our colonizing the Moon. There is very little carbon available to be utilized by the processes of life. Any carbon we will need for food production will have to be imported, probably from Earth, and the cost of launching it is going to be a major factor. Imagine launching a hundred tons of dried anchovies to the Moon to be used for fertilizer.

We may be importing our food directly from Earth for quite a while, at least until our own waste products amount to enough to recycle for use. And still, any expansion of food production will require even more carbon imports. Recycling is going to be BIG on the moon. In fact, we may also be very careful to recycle our nitrogen and phosphorus as well, as the other primary ingredients of fertilizer. And there may also be a few other elements in short supply.

Food production is going to be our major bottleneck for our efforts to make the Moon our "eighth continent" as it has so often been called. Antarctica is quite homey by comparison. That is why there are so many advocates for going directly to Mars, and build up the Moon later. But it really is so much closer, that we should use it to learn all we can before going away from home for years at a time.