NASA has released an interesting Request for Quotes:

Purchase of Lunar Regolith and/or Rock Materials from Contractor

A.The Contractor shall:1.Collect from 50g up to 500g of Lunar regolith and/or rock materials (“Collected Material”) from the surface of the Moon (Luna).a.Be responsible for performing all activities necessary, including:1.Determining method(s), providing and or developing equipment, deployment/launch/landing, and operation of all systems the Contractor’s method(s) requires. (this purchase does not include development, production, or launch of space vehicles)2.Identify, negotiate, and conclude, all necessary agreements and approvals for the Contractor’s method and all associated systems, personnel, and operations.2.Provide imagery to NASA of the collection and the Collected Material, and data that identifies the collection location on the Lunar surface.3.Provide the Collected Material to NASA upon its collection from the Lunar surface by in-place ownership transfer from Contractor to NASA. After ownership transfer the collected material becomes the sole property of NASA for use as NASA may determine.

It seems what NASA wants is for someone to go to the moon and box up samples… and leave then there for later collection. Which seems odd… if NASA is going to send a mission of some kind to the moon to collect those samples, it seems that that mission could probably collect them itself. But perhaps by having one or more rovers trundling around picking up samples from various places and delivering them to a central “depot” for collection, things could work better.

Seems very likely that this sort of thing is in service of preparations for mining operations on the moon… digging up water to service a base, or industrial  elements for lunar or space-based industry, or perhaps even very rare elements for return to Earth. And this is not only fine, this is praiseworthy. Except, of course, to Certain People. You know the kind. The kind who live off Daddy’s Trust Fund and bitch about capitalism over their ten dollar lattes. Behold:

NASA Is Soliciting Bids to Bring Capitalism to the Moon

Article is what you’d expect: “hurr durr, capitalism bad.”