How geography, physics, and economics determine where industrial production happens.
Seventy-eight percent of the air you breathe is nitrogen. It is also the single element most responsible for keeping half the world's population alive — and the process that turns atmospheric nitrogen into food is so energy-intensive, so geographically concentrated, and so dependent on uninterrupted natural gas supply that a single well-placed disruption could trigger a global calorie shortage within weeks.
The conversation about lunar exploration is stuck on flags and footprints. The serious conversation — the one happening in aerospace engineering departments, sovereign wealth funds, and defence ministries — is about something far more industrial: the Moon as a permanent off-world manufacturing base. The energy cost to launch 1kg of platinum off the Moon is about 10 pence. The platinum is worth £24,000.