I love the competition for space lift ability. It is wise, and will force down costs. It is coming into range for private companies to build lift vehicles.
I did not recognize his name, but I have followed Space X. If I were single, I would likely go there and help them. Remote control is clunky from here to the Moon, and impossibly difficult on Mars.
IF Remote control was possible, we would Not need A.I. software. We need boots on the ground, to develop the resources on the Moon. Robots can data collect, but to develop a surface and harvest resources; we will need people.
Machines by definition wear and break. That does Not mean they are not useful, but they do not Heal themselves. Basic repairs might be possible after creative programming. It is so expensive to build and lift machines there, that reuse after repair, becomes very important.
Solar power is important for a Moon installation, and splitting water and storing the Hydrogen, while breathing the Oxygen with the solar power, will allow you to run fuel cell during the evening! Lava tubes, once sealed, will make a good living space, and subsurface is safer....
The Space X design has been optimized to land on, and colonize Mars. They will need the experience we can get on the Moon, before someone gets killed up there. That said, I would Love to go anyway! If we can pull fuel from the moon, we have a much smaller gravity well to fight, to fuel a Mars Mission.
There is Much to be gained, by using the moon, as a stepping stone to the stars!
:)>
RE: NASA is back on track to colonize the moon, by destroying some grains of moon material brought back by Apollo 17.