Since humans last walked on the lunar surface in 1972, returning to the moon has been an almost perennial refrain among US presidential administrations.
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Last week, Vice President Mike Pence announced that the Trump administration aimed to send astronauts to the moon within five years.
It's not a universally popular idea. Apollo 11 astronaut Buzz Aldrin, who walked on the moon in 1969, has worn shirts emblazoned bluntly with his preference toward Mars for any future crewed space exploration.
Given the limitations on NASA's budget, some think resources would be better used for a push toward Mars.
But NASA has said a so-called lunar gateway in orbit around the moon could help astronauts explore the lunar surface more thoroughly than during the Apollo era.
"The moon isn't the ultimate goal," said Laura Forczyk, owner of space consulting firm Astralytical, describing it as a "stepping stone".
The idea behind a lunar outpost is that astronauts could have a home base from which to perform studies in lunar orbit and also conduct shorter missions to the moon's surface.
"We've only touched the surface of it," Forczyk said. "We really haven't done much. It's equivalent to landing at LAX and saying you've been to Los Angeles."
From there, NASA could work its way up to building a sustainable presence - or permanent base - on the moon, Forczyk said.
That base could enable astronauts to train for longer-term operations on other planets, such as Mars, and further exploration and mining of the moon's resources.
A return to the moon might not necessarily be solely a government endeavour. Pence said last week that if a commercially developed rocket was the only way to get to the moon in the five-year time frame, "then commercial rockets it will be".
The potential for commercial partnerships means that private companies such as Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin or Elon Musk'sSpaceX could one day play a role.
Last week, NASA said it will conduct ground tests on five prototypes of deep-space habitats developed by companies such as Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, and Boeing.
Renderings of the habitats largely look somewhat similar to smaller versions of the International Space Station and would remain in orbit around the moon.
Australian Associated Press
