Building a ship in the desert: Just say No to the proposed Earth-

Here's an article regarding the L1 station from space.com:

http://www.space.com/news/beyond_iss_020926-1.html

"
said Gary Martin, leader of NExT and assistant associate administrator for
the Office of Space Flight at NASA Headquarters. "We're looking at a
stair-step of capability. Our first stair step is Earth's neighborhood."
...
NASA's Martin said the L1 Gateway, replete with a habitat for crew
occupancy
...
But it can also be the first step on the way to putting people elsewhere
...

"

Note the phrase "Our FIRST step..." (emphasis mine) and "replete with a
habitat for crew occupancy". In other words, before NASA sends anyone
to the Moon or elsewhere, we'll build another ISS at L1 and populate it
with people. Yuck.

Why not go directly to Malapert Mountain at the Moon's South Pole and
establish a base there and begin to live off the land? No need for nukes
or SPS demonstrators, because 93% of the time the peak's in sunlight.

Or, if you want to leverage the zero-G experience with ISS, then build and
send an ISS variant to a NEO and back again. Or if Mars is too popular,
then send it to Deimos and back again.

Cut to the chase.

Ron