Well I'll say it again, sort of rehashing myself-I hate getting the last post on a page-everyone hits last, but oh well- you can suffer through it
. 3 key points.
1st of all, there is medical technology being invented right now that at this time can ONLY take place in 0 gravity (see cartilege on last page as an example).
2nd, Would anyone really argue that the next military technology race is going to be control of space? The Chinese are pushing there, the Euro's are pushing there, it was a good share of what broke the USSR. If there is water on the moon, that means that we can power and resupply from the moon. Which is MUCH cheaper than refueling on Earth.
2b, Openly going to the moon with a military presence likely equals immediate war- so you go up with allies in a peaceful scientific manner and establish a presence. You start problem solving and finding out the best ways to harvest water and energy prior to it being an emergency.
3. Power, that article didn't go into the full He3 thing. As I understand it, Helium is volatile in atmosphere and wants to turn into He2 or other compounds immediately. The 3rd He is what makes it useful. It can't occur in any useful quantity in the presence of air- and even without Fusion it's instant energy because it's immediately fissionable without any heavy metal left-overs.