IMO the 2024 Moon goal is needed because it is urgent to return to the Moon to stay. We're on the cusp of an economic revolution: robotics mining & manufacturing off-Earth. It is coming faster & bigger than prior socio-technological revolutions... (image: theequitykicker.com/2017/05/31/cha…) 
2/ The urgency is because this may turn out really, really good for humanity and the Earth, or it may be really, really bad. (Revolutions are like that.) What happens beginning NOW will determine which outcome the Earth will get. If we want a good outcome...
3/...then we need to be in a position of influence. We need to have a presence on the lunar surface since this is where robotic mining & manufacturing off-Earth will start.
I know this seems far-fetched, but every gigantic engineering project seems crazy from the outside...
I know this seems far-fetched, but every gigantic engineering project seems crazy from the outside...
4/ E.g., if someone asked you to pick up a shovel build this, where would you start? It seems crazy. But put together a team, and it gets done easily. (No different for revolutionary industry off-Earth.) (Image: lafargeholcim.com/millau-viaduct…)
5/ E.g., if someone said, go build a big plane that flies TO SPACE repeatedly, how would you do it? Yet break it down into systems & subsystems, design each piece, and it is quite do-able. (Same for putting factories in space, which will revolutionize economics & geopolitics.)
6/ 100s of people globally have worked on this and figured out how to start robotic factories in space affordably, and the robotics are becoming automated enough in the next couple decades to make it cheap, and massive space transportation is nearly ready, so this *is* coming...
7/ So we need a presence on the Moon extremely soon, to stay, to make sure *good* policy is put into place and to prevent *bad* actions. Pro-human, pro-Earth, pro-liberty, pro-justice, pro-inclusion, pro-future... If we want these, we have to be where the action will take place.
