Moon Water Limits Large Lunar Settlements

Scaling permanent lunar settlements beyond small outposts is bottlenecked by accessible water on the Moon: even generous estimates (∼1 billion tons of ice) would exhaust fast for a million‑person ‘self‑growing’ city unless recycling, imports, or discovery dramatically improve. Electricity may be solvable via polar solar installations, but potable and agricultural water needs, plus long‑term recycling limits, are the hard constraint for population scale. — If true, this reframes space policy, private investment, and national strategy from assuming indefinite lunar expansion to prioritizing reconnaissance, water‑import logistics, and realistic staging of human presence.