Industrial mining on the Moon may become a reality only by the end of the 21st century. This opinion was expressed by the famous historian of astronautics Alexander Zheleznyakov.
I think that in the 21st century, only at the very end will we approach the issue of extracting some resources on the surface of the Moon. It simply won't be technically possible any earlier.
According to the expert, humanity has a long path of technological development ahead before starting to develop extraterrestrial resources. Before starting mining, it is necessary to create reliable means of transportation, deploy a permanent base on the lunar surface, and develop a fleet of semi-automatic and fully autonomous robots. Zheleznyakov noted that solving these engineering problems requires not a few years, but consistent work over decades.
Despite the distant prospects of industrial development, the scientific study of the Earth's satellite continues. Russia is actively preparing to launch new automatic stations. In particular, the launch of the Luna-26 orbital spacecraft is scheduled for 2028. Also, the national project "Space" includes a large-scale program "Venera-D", which provides for sending a landing module, an aerostat probe and an orbital spacecraft to a neighboring planet by 2036.