Seems we could have found some use for the thing?
And why a space-station, why not a moon-station?
Seems we could have found some use for the thing?
And why a space-station, why not a moon-station?
All very good questions. If NASA had any vision they'd have a plan sketched out for this very thing. Its a logical start. And sending out prospecting parties to look for water in the lunar polar regions would be a decent start. We know how to get there.
Trouble is, we know how, but I don't know if we have the will and the infrastructure. NASA is hobbled by bureaucracy and politics, so instead of proposing bold programs to go further into space, they spend a lot of time trying not to make mistakes and protecting turf. When you substitute timidity for vision, you tend to have mediocre and unproductive programs.
Infrastructure is a problem because a lot of intellectual capital has gone away. So has manufacturing capability. Even if we wanted to fly a Saturn V again I'm not sure we could build one. The fabrication facilities have been dismantled and I heard a rumor (urban legend?) that the plans for the Saturn V were either destroyed or lost. We'd be starting from scratch, probably reverse-engineering the one out on the front lawn of the JSC, which is (was) a flight-ready model (the one at the Visitor's Center at KSC is a test article).
I heard that one of the last surviving lunar modules was located at a junkyard somewhere. There was the one given to the Smithsonian so we might be able to reverse-engineer that, particularly the throttleable decent stage engine. Is Grumman still in the space flight business, or in business at all?