So here's a question for you:

We know that you don't want to fly the mass of heat shields up and down on the Moon;

Similarly, we know that you don't want to fly landing engines, legs etc, to the Moon and then throw that mass away;

We know that docking and fuel transfer both work;

We know that cargo transfer takes time, and you don't want to wast man hours in orbit;

We know that you want to get the most for any mass launched off the Earth, so you want to have multipurpose cargo containers;

We know that radiation shelters covered with regolith will be necessary;

We know that astronauts can only do a limited amount using unpressurized vehicles;

Given those constraints, you use fuel transfer at a station in lunar orbit, a re-usable lunar orbit-moon surface landing frame, cargo modules which then are re-used as habitation modules; and at least two types of specialized vehicles, one with a crane;

NOW: Do you place your lunar orbital staion in the old Apollo orbits, orin the new stable polar orbit?

CAPS made it to #10 in the astronomy goals, and determining how often comets hit made it to #3 or so in the geophysics section - and there's a new international invitation - good news all the way aorund