Not a really, really good report, but a good one nonetheless.

I read most of it during lunch and its a sensible macroscopic view of what kinds of science can be done on the Moon, how some of those can be of benefit of Earth, and even recognizes that scientific information has value to the commercial sector, such as the quality of hydrogen samples at the Lunar poles.

I'm especially happy because I don't sound like an idiot anymore when I sound off about why South Pole/Aitken Basin should be the initial target, or why it's important to study the history enscribed in the Moon's surface (such as at Space News back in April when I gently took Dr. Zubrin to task for one of his editorials deriding Lunar crater studies as nonsense: http://www.space.com/spacenews/archive06/MurphyOpEd_041706.html).

This report is actually just an Interim Report that was due the end of August for NASA to have to use for planning and budgeting purposes in September. The report can be downloaded free from http://www.nap.edu/catalog/11747.html. It boils down to:

1) Enabling activities are critical in the near-term - establish a Lunar Fundamental Research Program and a Lunar Data Analysis Program.
2) Explore the South Pole-Aitken Basin - references priorities from 2002 report "New Frontiers in the Solar System". (Which in all honesty gave both a SPAB mission and an All-Sky Synoptic Survey mission relatively low priority)
3) Determine the composition and structure of the lunar interior - compare and contrast with Earth. Discuss amongst yourselves.
4) Maximize the diversity of lunar samples - choose your landing sites carefully.
5) Proceed with lunar surface mission development and the site selection process - get FULL input of scientific community (that's why you have start now, the guys cannot prioritize and it takes a while).
6) Understand the lunar polar deposits and environment - well duh.
7) Understand and characterize the lunar atmosphere - before the industrialists (like me!) start spewing their waste into it. (I would actually work to capture and accumulate as much as I could. Storage space is not going to be an issue, and anything that would be "outgassed" would be of value for some application out in space)
8) Evaluate the Moon's potential as an observation platform - primarily Earth, Sun-Earth (e.g. magnetotail passage), astronomy and astrophysics.
9) Establish strong ties with international programs - how can we make other countries spend their money on Lunar stuff that's of use to us while still leaving us with every competitive advantage?

Recommendations:
1) Knock some heads and get ESMD to work with SMD. Put SMD office in ESMD that matrixes to both.
2) Identify & develop lunar-specific advanced technology and instrumentation.
3) Plan curatorial and PI facilities for new lunar samples - and make the seals better this time around.
4) Optimize astronaut lunar field investigations - an integrated human/robotic approach. Which NASA was actually looking at, as I recall spending my 2004 (?) birthday vacation in a dull meeting room at Space Center Houston where the Lunar Human Robotic Exploration Working Group held an open meeting (back when they did that sort of thing). It's where I had W. Mendell sign my copy of LBSA21C.

I'd just like to take a moment to have a Boo-Yah! In Your Face! moment. Okay, that was it. The report makes a lot of good points, and addresses a lot of things that I don't usually look at (mainly because they have less commercial/security applications). I did editorialize a bit in the summary parts, but I'm feeling a bit frisky. Read my OpEd from April, then look at Theme 1 on page 8 and Theme 7 on page 13 of the report.

Why is it not a really, really good report? While I realize that the NRC's mandate was science, I think they could have addressed just a wee bit more the commercial and security aspects of the VSE that the science can be applied to. Don't get me wrong, they do at least mention commercial interests, which is a quantum leap in my regard. But it could go a bit further to establish how the priorities established in the report can be applied to all three aspects of the VSE, irrespective of a narrow read of their mandate.

It's a really good start.