NASA is fixated on pure research, which for them has degenerated into reinventing the wheel. For this reason, NASA needs to take a back seat, let someone else do the practical work, and then once it is done, NASA can sublet floorspace in the Moon base to do its thing.
So whoever is practical needs to do three things. Identify and overcome obstacles. Build and improve the Moon base. And accomplish a profitable purpose in doing so.
The obstacles are vacuum, extremes of heat and cold, cosmic and enhanced radiation, and extremely abrasive Lunar dust. The way to overcome these is by living in underground habitations. Surface habitations are fragile and short lived, have cramped space, and use enormous amounts of cargo space and weight.
This means that nuclear powered hard rock mining robots need to be sent to the Moon, where they can tunnel and prepare those tunnels for use, for several years before people arrive. They do not have to be fast, only methodical, and their landing craft can be cannibalized for use as pressure doors, reinforcing rod, ceiling, and flooring.
However, the purpose of going to the Moon as a profitable enterprise is far more problematic. It’s biggest advantage is as a launching pad for further space exploration, likely to Mars, and astronomy.
No kidding. Using the Moon as a base to begin the economic exploitation of Space. . .now THAT’s a proposal I can support.
Lunar mining to support a construction shack, to build powersats. Orbital refining of asteroidal metals and other minerals.
It’s raining soup out there, and the people who say “Spend on Earth FIRST” don’t want us to invest in soup bowls.
And where DOES space spending get spent ? On AMERICAN companies like Boeing and Lockheed and Northrop-Grumman, building rockets and infrastructure HERE. Good, Solid High-Tech jobs that you can’t readily export. . .
Well, this way seemed to make money:
Station Manager Sheppard: "Let me tell you what you're dealing with here. I run a franchise. The company hired me to dig as much ore out of this hellhole as possible. My hookers are clean, some of them are good looking. My booze isn't watered. The workers are happy. When the workers are happy, they dig more ore. They get paid more bonus money. When they dig more ore, the company's happy. When the company's happy, I'm happy."