Being more of a space noob, why would anyone build a base on the moon? Is there anything there worth the effort? I can understand Mars maybe...
There are a few reasons. Besides science, exploration, etc it provides a stable, low gravity environment to do construction for other space exploration. It is a smaller body with 1/6 gravity and no atmosphere: it would be incredibly easy to launch from the moon compared to earth. A linear accelerator for initial velocity would actually work there because of the vacuum. In terms of economics: Helium. In particular Helium 3. To sum up, the Earth is running out of Helium and because the US decided to eliminate its stockpiles the market is flooded with it, drastically lowering the price. Helium 3 is the rarer isotope and barely present on the earth at all, but is the most viable candidate for fusion. On the moon it is pretty plentiful. I believe the stat is that the volume of a single space shuttle's cargo hold would be enough H3 to power all of North America for a year. Of course we have to get fusion working first. * cough *
unmanned capsule: meh
Its a fully pressurized capsule that
could have been carrying people and they would have made it! I believe Dragon is designed to be moon capable for people or even part of a mars or asteroid bound craft. Its a pretty giant leap forward for the private sector!