science

I was thinking this was future planning for the other direction. While actually having a permanent colony of civilians on the moon is unrealistic, having a layover/fueling station on the moon that will have a small population of researchers, engineers, etc. is actually pretty feasible, and any mass sent up there will still be expensive. Shipping seeds is significantly cheaper than shipping food, and dirt is heavy, so you want to ship as little of it as possible. If it's possible to grow stuff in lunar soil, that drastically decreases the amount of mass that needs to be sent.