Question

Could the Moon be inhabited by people in 50-100 years?

Answer 1

Yes and no.

Explanation:

There are no clear estimates for the speed of non-Earth colonisation, but if Scientific Progress continues accelerating at the same rate, we would be close to colonising the Moon within 100 years.

Answer 2

A few thoughts...

Explanation:

There are various obstacles that make inhabiting the moon unattractive...

• The moon's gravity is insufficient to retain a significant atmosphere. So the population would have to inhabit artificial structures.

• The much lower gravity could cause health issues for long term residents.

• The moon lacks a magnetosphere. So there is no protection from cosmic rays. So long term stays are likely to be injurous to health.

• The moon seems to lack essential resources which would have to be transported and carefully recycled: oxygen, water, etc.

What would be the advantages of being on the moon?

• The very sparse atmosphere allows much clearer views of space than we get from the Earth's surface.

I think that's about it.

With advances in robotics and AI, why would we bother to have actual people on the moon suffering the harmful environment?

All this having been said, I can imagine having a habitable station on the moon's surface that might be staffed by research scientists in a similar way to Antarctica today.