[Doe Eyes]

Send the tools to make what you need there. A foothold will be expensive, but if someone else gets one before we do, it will be more so.

Instead of a Moon Base we should focus on a warp drive spaceship like the Starship Enterprise. Then if the Chinese or Russians threaten us from their Moon Bases, we can blast them from the Enterprise with our Photon Torpedos.

[Smokin' Joe]

All we have to do from the moon is throw well timed rocks....

That works on a shoestring R&D budget.