sounds epic, mining on the moon. However what the US military doesn't like to disclose is that in the thousands of classified patents they've collected over the last hundred years, they have already solved the energy crisis. with these technologys enjoying great private success, and now recent public success, they all make any resource collection and extraction projects obsolete.
-Free energy (self propelled momentum energy)
-Wireless free energy (harnessing ionization from the space around us)
-Subspace energy from self contained subspace 'vacule'
- Antimatter
Tesla came up with the first 2, both buried for the obvious effects it would have on a social grid created by the government to keep the population on a short leash (i.e. fossile fuels, exhuastable energy). The latter 2 are recent developments that the military have been working on since the 50's just after einstein discovered subspace during the Philidelphia experiment. Drawing energy from subspace will be the most ultimate energy source, and anti-matter would wield far more than any nuclear power we've come across so far. Civilian progress in these fields have been purposely stiffled be the military to keep civilians from ever gaining access to the technology. Rest assured that the US military and a few others are well practiced in the employment of subspace technology. It started out for stealth systems, radar evasion, electromagnetic jamming, ect. Eventually they cracked how the create gravametric fields, or 'antigrav' drives. All of this unlocked a whole new world of energy usage that they withold in order to keep everyone dependent on the big corporations and governments.
This is why the US discontinued their shuttle program, and with it its only public civilian manned spaceflight program. With the space infrstructure in orbit, you'd think they'd be a little more on the ball when it comes to keeping people in space, right? wrong, the US airforce has had its own, paralelle, classified space program running in behind NASA since the 50s, and they already have FTL capability, subspace energy usage, inertial dampening, etc. This is why Obama cancelled the 'return to the moon' program bush created, and ended the shuttle program with no replacement in effect. They have technology, ships and craft capable of interplanetary travel and yes interstellar travel for years now. No need to keep funding nasa, except for mars rover charades.