Cancel the useful Lunar Gateway and drop the modules down to the lunar surface? Are you $%@#! kidding?

There are no levels where the cancellation of Gateway - in favor of jibbering fantasies about a near term, surface “moonbase” - is not an utter betrayal of science, reason, NASA and the nation and humanity. 

ALL of the science advisory panels preferred Gateway orbital station, for a dozen reasons (see below). But the absurd nothion of putting modules designed for a zero-gee station down onto the lunar surface... are you freaking kidding me? Even if it would work (and it can't), have you a plan HOW to do that? 

Have ANY of you actually swallowed that?

I had hopes that Isaacman would turn out like Bridenstine... an anomalously (even uniquely) excellent appointment by Donald Trump. Instead, he is pushing the Artemis/'lunarbase' moondoggle plot to destroy all sensible US efforts in space.

Again. And again. Land Gateway modules on the lunar surface? What dopes would ever fall for that?

Sigh: let me explain. Gateway was what every panel advised. It could:

(1) Continue developing the modular methods needed for better stations and Mars missions and (yes) later lunar bases.

(2) It would enable local control of ROBOTIC lunar explorers going down to dozens of sites below. (FIFTY small robot prospectors would accomplish vastly more than ONE silly footprint Artemis stunt, including finding the best later site for a base. (And yes, robots can also plant little flags. Say at lava tubes near the ice.)

(3) Some robots could easily send samples back up to Gateway for analyisis. And again, samples FROM MANY SITES allowing us to actually find the best one.

(4) The same labs could analyze robotic-acquired ASTEROID SAMPLES. And asteroids are where the riches are! (Which of course is why the Trumpists have sabotaged all asteroid missions and don’t want Gateway.)

(5) If any of you jabber idiot incantations about “lunar resources”... like titanium or ‘Helium three’... go to the nearest mirror and SMACK yourself silly! Until you decide to snap out of the snake oil sales pitches.

Yes, there may be some ice near the poles. So? That’s just the beginning of what we should be exploring robotically, in case there might be (maybe) be something more than just ice.

(6) There are HUGE benefits of Gateway for enhanced national defense that I won’t get into here. But the potential security benefits are enormous and none of them would arise from a hardscrabble 'base' on the surface… and that's one more reason the Trumpists canceled it, of course.

(7) A unique idea. Gateway would be the perfect lunar-orbit HOTEL! For uber-lord oligarch tourists who more than pay their way.

And a docking port/base for landers that WE could provide and rent out to every nation and trillionaire who wants to have their 'yeehaw lookit-me!' rite of passage on that dusty plain, celebrating their Bar Moonzvahs there.

We could even stash a lander and say “Welcome to our Moon, have fun down there kids. And here’s your backup rescue vehicle.”

Again, I do hope to live to see city lights on the moon. 

BUT IT IS NOT OUR NEXT STEP! AND CERTAINLY NOT AMERICA’S. 

We have vastly better things to do.

And that is exactly why oligarchs are trying to prevent those better things.