...well, not the spotless mind, but actually the lunar north pole.

This is very interesting, for two reasons. Most plans for lunar bases assume a need for a nuclear power plant, because of the two-week-long night there. Discovering regions where the sun always shines means that we can get by with solar power. From a design standpoint, it will also be a lot easier to design equipment for a single temperature (-50 C) than for an environment with huge temperature swings, which is the case between lunar day and night.

The real question now is whether or not there's ice in the craters, where the sun never shines, as seems to be the case at the south pole.

Presumably the poles would also be safer from an asteroid-impact standpoint as well.

I saw the article mention that a new probe is going to the moon planned for a 2007 launch, and that they hope to use that to measure the sunlight on the pole.

Sounds like a good target for TransOrbital, assuming they're still around and in business. I wasn't able to find anything on their website stating that they ever actually launched their 2003 moon probe mission, but if they've got the State Department clearance, why not beat the scientists to the punch and have a probe sitting on the Lunar North Pole for a year before Chandrayaan-1 gets there?

As long as they don't build the moonbase on the inside of a crater, things should be OK.

The other interesting thing is that if the prime real estate is only near the poles, it's going to become scarce fairly quickly once muliple nations are working on lunar bases. So there will need to be some way of deciding who gets the right to build where, and who "owns" parcels of lunar land. And if it starts to be done by private enterprise, it gets even more interesting, because it won't be just a matter of international treaties, but of squatters and claims and recording titles ...

I'd rather see squatters, claimers, and titles than soverign nations going to the moon and saying "we own the moon, no private citizens allowed."

But, that's just me.

And don't forget the folks that will pouring out of the woodwork proclaiming that "water on the moon" is the birthright of all mankind and no one country should have ownership.

That will create a real mess when it comes to ownership issues.