In one scenario, NASA could provide the manned Orion deep space craft which would be launched with the heavy-lift rocket, Space Launch System, while the private sector could provide lunar landing vehicles and the habitats that would comprise a lunar base. The lunar base would be established and owned by a commercial enterprise and NASA would be a core customer leasing space.
Why bother with the SLS?
Two Falcon Heavy launches could put 240k lbs into LEO. With careful planning, that would be enough for an Apollo type mission. The first launch will put the command module and lunar module package into LEO. The second launch will bring the fuel that would be needed to propel the craft towards the moon.
Of course, you'd have to develop the lander that would do the lunar landing. Somebody in the private sector could do that. Perhaps someone in the commercial field already has something that could work. I'm not too sure about that, but if it became a national priority, it may not take all that long to set it up and go with it.
Since the Falcon Heavy is already close to operational status, the entire project can be done in just a few years. Or at least by 2020. It would have to be a national priority, though.
Update:
Here's an idea:
Use the Dragon's SuperDraco engines for the necessary propulsion after getting into lunar trajectory.
These would be the capture to lunar orbit burn, the descent burn, the ascent burn, and the departure burn.
You would need to carry sufficient fuel to execute these four burns, but if you were to use the same engines for all four, the amount of mass would be less than what was used for Apollo. I'm guessing about 15k kgs for ascent and descent. I won't hazard a guess for the insertion and departure burns, but those should be less than the ascent and descent since the delta v is less. Even if they equal out, that 30k kg for fuel and about 5k for the Dragon itself bringing the mass up to 35 k plus the fuel tanks. This should be less than what the Apollo missions used. The savings would result from less hardware as the Dragon would be used for landing and for returning to Earth.
Another advantage is that it wouldn't require anything substantially new to develop as the SuperDraco thrusters are already being developed and the Dragon already exists. The Falcon Heavy is near testing and all the parts could be made ready in a short time.
Update:
Actually, that last paragraph needs correction. In this proposed configuration, there is no Earth Departure Stage hardware that exists. It must be developed before a mission can take place. I'm presuming one will be developed, but that presumption could be incorrect.
The missions to Mars are the ones that I had in mind, but none of those may have these requirements.
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