Importance of Magnesium for The Lunar Base

A Lunar Base can be formed by a sustainable Earth to Moon Logistic rout. Additionally Lunar construction requires high electric power.

The orbiting space cargo ship I had proposed earlier can utilize magnesium hall effect thrusters. The space ship would mostly preserve its speed on the rout. Therefore, the additional thrust requirement would be lower than an Earth to orbit launch. NASA has worked on developing a magnesium (Mg) Hall effect thruster system that would open the door for in situ resource utilization (ISRU)-based solar system exploration. Magnesium is light and easy to ionize. For a Mars- Earth transfer, the propellant mass savings with respect to a Xenon Hall effect thruster (HET) system are enormous. Magnesium also can be combusted in a rocket with carbon dioxide (CO₂) or water (H₂O), enabling a multimode propulsion system with propellant sharing and ISRU. In the near term, CO₂ and H₂O would be collected in situ on Mars or the moon. In the far term, Mg itself would be collected from Martian and lunar regolith (soil). (Magnesium Hall Thruster)

I recommend we should utilize magnesium-based thermoelectric generators on the lunar surface.  It is a subject; scientists are researching on High-performance magnesium-based thermoelectric materials: Progress and challenges. The thermoelectric generators are not affected by the lunar dust like the solar panels would do. Also manufacturing them on the Moon would be much easier than a solar panel. As we generate more electric, we can mine more minerals that would be used for construction and build more electric generating panels. 

A Lunar Base is more feasible if we can minimize the cargo from Earth. Most abundant useful metals on the Lunar surface are Aluminum and Magnesium. We should utilize them more. One last word, sending humans to the Moon for Lunar Base Construction would be the weakest part of such a project. Therefore, please do not send humans. We should be able to utilize robots for that. Please use legged robots not wheeled ones.