Why don't ISS astronauts just fly to the moon every weekend?

[dgtech]

So you suggest orbital stations make no sense, and it would be more efficient to continue launching chemical rockets and trying to defy the huge gravity well our planet is each and every time, with all the costs and risks of failure associated?

 

[D H]

So you suggest orbital stations make no sense, and it would be more efficient to continue launching chemical rockets and trying to defy the huge gravity well our planet is each and every time, with all the costs and risks of failure associated?

That is a straw man argument.

You have claimed that it is cheaper/better/faster to use an orbital space station, and in particular, the ISS, as a base. I, and others, have shown that this is not the case. You are vastly oversimplifying what is a very hard problem.

 

[DaveC426913]

So you suggest orbital stations make no sense, and it would be more efficient to continue launching chemical rockets and trying to defy the huge gravity well our planet is each and every time, with all the costs and risks of failure associated?

The point is, it is only more cost-effective if we also transport most of JFK Space Centre and its satellite manufacturing companies up there as well. And even that doesn't do anything about the fuel problem (there is no water up there to even convert to fuel).