Given the choice between spending money for NASA to get men back to the moon or spending money for NASA to study climate change, I pick neither.
The Chinese have a moon program and IIRC they didn’t sign the treaty banning space militarization.
If you don’t think that the Chinese setting up a lunar base is a bad idea, you need to read Heinlein’s ‘The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress’. Once you set up a lunar base, a railgun/linear accelerator is relatively easy to build - and then you have *the entire planet* in orbital bombardment range.
He who controls the high ground controls the battlespace.
DON’T TOUCH THE MOON
Don’t touch them moon.
I need it for loving.
Don’t touch the stars.
I need them, too.
All you frantic scientists,
Find somewhere else to go.
—Cornell Blakeley, Fulton Records #2473, 1957