There's some very important stuff, called helium-3, on the moon. We know how to get to the moon. And helium-3 is key to near-zero-pollution nuclear fusion. That's the nuclear energy that won't leave piles of radioactive waste. That's the form of energy that would truly transform how humans live.
No doubt that launching a mining operation would be a complex effort. Even so, I find it amazing how completely unwilling the general media, and thus the public, has been to learn even a little about this subject. (The science pubs have been writing about helium-3 for several years).
There remains much work to do to actually begin mining the moon. Not only do we need to figure out how to get more big stuff to the moon to do the mining, we also have to come to agreement on who gets to "own" mineral rights -- to the moon, to Mars, to the asteroid belt, and all the rest.
How that gets decided will play a huge role in the private enterprise future of space exploration. Will our children or grandchildren live under the influence of a space-age version of the Dutch East India Company? A new wave of colonial empire building across the planetary system? And then beyond? Or will the exploitation of space minerals be controlled by some form of United Nations-esque, one-resource-for-all-humanity, approach?
There will be a race to the rocks someday, perhaps sooner than we think. And America will have to decide: will we let other nations "win" this race? Do we want China or Russia or some other country setting the rules? Do we want a "wild west" free-for-all?
And what would our Planet Earth look like if people had a near-infinite source of industrial-scale, high-volume, yet-virtually-pollution-free, energy at everyone's disposal?
Dismiss these things as "fantasy" all you want. Sooner or later, we're going to find out.