Not A Single Achievement

If the SpaceX Starship is designed to land on Mars why can it not land directly on the Moon? No fuel and time-wasting stop and a lunar orbital station.

NASA needs (f)LOP-G because they can’t turn the Orion module into a lunar lander. So they now have to make a lunar lander and a place to park them. An orbital gas station.

You’re right. It shouldn’t be too hard. SpaceX might be able to use a Starship as a permanent outpost, and another Starship to travel to and from the Moon. Including Musk’s development cost estimate, this would cost between $2-1/2 billion to $10-1/2 billion, and could probably be completed by 2028.

However, this is not Bridenstein’s complicated plan.

For NASA, buying some tickets seems to be very hard indeed. Considering the trouble that NASA’s Commercial Crew Program is having due to politics, I doubt that they would be able to do something that reasonable.
https://behindtheblack.com/behind-the-black/essays-and-commentaries/nasas-political-and-corrupt-safety-panel/

Clearly, these days, NASA likes to place a heavy hand on the projects that it runs, and Jim Bridenstine’s description of the mission seems no different.

“This time, when we go to the Moon, we’re actually going to stay.”

This will require a permanent ground station on the first manned flight, otherwise the mission is just “going to leave flags and footprints and then come home.”

“we’re making it sustainable so you can go back and forth regularly with humans. … NASA plans to build a small space station, dubbed Gateway, in the Moon’s orbit by 2026. It will serve as a way-station for trips to and from the lunar surface”

Thus, Robert concluded that ((F)LOP) Gateway (To Nowhere) will have to be involved. Do any of you remember how much that is supposed to cost? NASA has stated that part of Gateway’s purpose is to be a way station for missions that regularly go back and forth to the Moon’s surface.

“As with the ISS, NASA would seek the participation of other countries, who could provide some of the necessary [hardware] needed, such as modules for the Moon station or vehicles to allow landings on the surface.”

For ISS, international participation resulted in some of the delays that were experienced. This complicates the program.

Rather than speed up plans, they seem to complicate the mission. 2028 gives them only nine years to build their Gateway lunar space station, a lunar surface outpost, and a lunar lander.

If they hadn’t put ISS and SLS together in less than a decade, I would have little confidence in NASA’s ability to get back to the Moon in nine years using three yet-to-be-developed pieces of hardware.

Oh, wait …