"Frosch called for a greater use of the ISS as part of an exploration program that has a greater focus on Mars rather than the Moon. “I have never been personally that excited about going back to the Moon as our next objective,” he said. “I would be inclined to make it a Mars objective, and examine the question of how do you use the station and what the strategic plan would be for going to Mars.” One possibility, he said, would be for the ISS to serve as a “construction shack” for assembling future Martian expeditions.

Beggs echoed some of those sentiments. The exploration program as currently structured, he said, “doesn’t quite hang together.” “If we’re going to go to Mars‒and I would like to do that‒there are a lot of technologies that we ought to be beginning to develop,” such as nuclear power and advanced life support systems, he said. “Going back to the Moon, we’re not addressing any of those problems. The question is… how does the space station fit into all this?” The station, he argued, could be used as a platform for testing those technologies.

Great forum. Kudos to the ex-NASA Admins and the always excellent Jim Oberg.

Couple points. Note that there is consensus here that the Return to the Moon does little or nothing towards advancing manned exploration of the solar system. Tragic.

And as to Frosch's comment, I don't know how a polar orbit ISS can be a construction shack for Das Marsprojekt, totally wrong plane of orbit. Hello???