India is now the fourth nation to successfully soft-land a space vehicle on the moon, complete with a little rover, and right where water ice is believed to be. The obvious reason is to see just how much ice is actually there. If there’s a large amount, sufficient to support some sort of colony, then the next step is obvious.
Water can be electrically separated into oxygen and hydrogen for breathing and rocket fuel, and if there’s sufficiently abundant water found, the rush will be on to establish the first colony or military outpost on the moon.
Elon Musk and SpaceX are developing a moon lander and considering their expertise in landing rockets on floating barges, and capability in sending rockets into orbit, they have a commanding lead. Soon, with any luck, brand new, devastating weapons will be smashing into our planet from the various Moon bases. What fun!