It may indeed have advantages over an LEO station as an interplanetary mission staging area.

I just think this obsession with going back to the moon is going to suck all our space program dry, like the Shuttle did. As for the moon being a reservoir of resources, I'll believe it when it is demonstrated to me with hard numbers.

The only thing I know for sure that the moon has plenty of is gravity. Every kilogram of reaction mass needed to brake for landing on the moon, as well as every kilogram needed to claw back out of its gravity well, is going to have to be first lifted up out of earth's well. And that's just propellant. We still haven't even looked at the cost of payload.

And that's not even counting the energy expense of building, supplying, operating and maintaining a lunar base as well as any lunar orbital stations needed to support it.

As for all this talk about using the lunar lava tubes that MIGHT exist in order to learn how to use the Martian lava tubes that MIGHT exist...well, I don't buy it and I certainly don't want to pay for it, with either delta-v or delta-dollars.