I still dont get how the moon isnt flooded with robots over the past 30 years.
Since the signal lag isnt that bad, they could easily be controlled almost in real-time. Heck, we could have had robot construction equipment there the past 20 years building an advanced moon base, only needing NASA to send some people.
NASA spent most of the last 30 years under multiple different administrations deliberately running around killing off private and/or low cost space lift in order to protect the shuttle. They killed Rotary Rocket, they killed DC-X, they killed many other ventures.
There was *no* lift available because the US and EU governments refused to let anyone develop anything with lunar lift capability and Russia couldn’t be bothered.