This topic was very much discussed on campus during my grad school days (10 years ago now). I&#x27;m quite sure that Dr. Gary Flandro discussed it with many people at great length. But then, that&#x27;s one thing he&#x27;s always done -- figure out how to get to new and exciting places in the solar system. He was very much in favor of using the Moon as a base for expansion into the rest of the solar system for exactly this reason. Once you set up a beach-head there with facilities for extracting materials and manufacturing goods, it&#x27;s much easier to launch onward into the rest of the solar system. This, I recall, was a major theme of the Quick-Goethert lecture that Dr. Flandro gave in 2005. It was a great pleasure to attend that lecture.<p>So yes, just from that one example, I&#x27;ll grant you that people discuss this sort of approach all the time. Dr. Flandro certainly wasn&#x27;t the first, even then.