Or: Why gravity is the universe's velcro.

The people making the decisions seem to be wearing a huge set of blinders, as if the post Civil War US Army had decided it could build only one fort in the west, and all exploration and settlement would have to be staged from there.

But their realworld experience tells us the correct strategy: Build a bridge of outposts, each a day's ride from the last. Don't force travelers to carry a hotel on their backs; give them rest stops and a destination.

A station orbiting the Moon makes perfect sense...to explore the Moon, and if it's not our only outpost in space. But I have to say, putting all our eggs in that one basket is profoundly stupid.

We need to commit to operating a station in LEO from now on; we have to get out of the rut of building, deorbiting, and building again. In our local system, apropos gravity as velcro, we know several good places to hang outer stations, notably at the LaGrange points. An Ln station makes a whole lot more sense to me, given that a LaGrange well has enough gravity to park things, but exacts a minimal tax when it's time to leave. That's where I'd build the "debarkation port for the outer planets".

Weird, a cislunar station is like deciding that Los Angeles's airport must be on Catalina Island, and everybody who wants to leave has to first grab a boat and take an ocean ride.

Mars is fortunate in that it has a couple of moons orbiting conveniently close to make excellent space platforms. But the Earth has a different kind of moon, and wishing it were Phobos won't move it any closer.

Bad idea.