[EricH]

We're engineers and scientists. For us, the Moon is not done. There is still much more to do.

But for the general public, the Moon was done 40 years ago. You think there'll be big news if we send a rover to the Moon? Nah, we've got two on Mars already. Besides, we sent men there years ago. Who cares? We could send something to the Moon every day if we really wanted to.

If we're going to do anything with the Moon, it needs to be semi-permanent, something like the ISS but tied to the Moon. We, as engineers, need to figure out the food, water, and waste issues, not only for the station, but for the supply line. We need to figure out transit issues on the Moon. How are we going to get into and out of a Moon base? How are we going to build it? How do we get air into it? How do we get our people out of there when their stay is done?

And for everything we learn from that, we can look at Mars and figure out how to adapt it to the Martian terrain. The Moon, if we do go there, will be a jumping-off point for Mars, either in engineering terms or in real terms. (Build a spacecraft out there, or assemble it there, and it takes less fuel to get going.)