As the old adage goes, anything we consider technological advancement in terms of civilian, commercial use has been or was being used by DARPA 30 years ago. I believe it was the former director of Lockheed Martin "Skunk Works" who said this - a credible source.

That said, my thinking is that rather than direct more attention than necessary, the US power structure tried to squash all interest in the moon and any space programs by officially announcing that they were over. What is more realistic, is that they immediately set to work on how to leverage access to the moon into a militaristic strategy advantage.

It is very plausible that the next war is going to be via cyber. When you think about it the primary vital utility to any functional military is communications. After all, how are you able to effectively coordinate millions of moving parts, supply lines, strategy,intel collection, distribution, and mobilization efforts without communications? You cannot.

Knowing where the next military edge was going to be, the US, China, and Russia set out to focusing on satellites and the moon. This is so that if (when?) a cyber black swan event occurs, or an EMP within our atmosphere wipes out comms. these soverign military forces have the ability to re-establish communications, GPS, and surveillance. Never underestimate how often militaries lean on these weapons.

This is not even going into the can of worms that is extraterrestrial life. That is a discussion best had offline with a cold beer!