I think it's proposed to create an inhabitable moon base as a staging post for sending folks to Mars. As Arnie said "Get your ass to Mars, get your ass to Mars."
davebro: "yes - I sometimes wonder if the brilliant minds & huge sums of dosh might be better employed. " - immeasurable benefits have come from space exploration.
So it's an a clueless invalid question then. The moon is a satellite, not a planet. Should you really be posting in science when you are completely ignorant of it?
pimply: "The worlds most expensive firework. Hope the dam thing goes up in smoke before it gets off the ground. " - So you'd rather waste the 20bn than have the mission succeed? Right oh! Your ignorance is breathtaking.
Edison & Marconi didn't send rockets into space to produce their inventions. There's no reason why things accruing from the space programs couldn't have bee achieved by other means.