I agree to disagree was the tone of last week’s major workshop on science to be carried out by NASA’s return to the Moon adventure.

Held in Tempe, Arizona, the lunar accretion of experts was orchestrated by the NASA Advisory Council (NAC) under the wing of Apollo 17 moonwalker, Jack Schmitt. He is also chairman of the NAC.

NASA chief, Mike Griffin, gave two reality-based talks at the meeting on being cash-strapped. He did point out that he believed the Moon has been underestimated as to its usefulness and value - plenty of surprises there and many things to do on the Moon.

By the way, the military should also be interested in cis-lunar space (the space between the Earth and Moon), Griffin said. “If they weren’t, I would think they are idiots,” he advised.

But in plotting out the replanting of astronaut boots on the Moon, extensive use of pre-human lunar robotics doesn’t look to be in the financial cards.

“I’m not real optimistic,” Griffin told the scientists regarding any robot craft after NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter mission in late 2008.

At the Tempe gathering, Griffin also said the Orion Crew Exploration Vehicle (CEV) project was budget-starved. That translates into the CEV not being ready until late 2014 - no earlier, under the best case, he said. By the time the NASA head winged his way back to Washington, D.C. to testify before Congress, the CEV readiness had slipped into 2015. Must be those hard-to-open airplane peanuts that gave Griffin extra time to number-crunch the CEV slip.

In their deliberations, however, lunar scientists stood their ground - or is it regolith? First of all, robot orbiters/landers are vital to better prepare for future Moon visitors. Also, there’s need for mobility of astronauts from a lunar outpost to maximize utilization of the Moon. Furthermore, engineers better make ample room in some sort of CEV cargo bay to shove out experiments into lunar orbit and down onto the Moon’s surface.

A wide range of “Tempe in a teapot” position statements from the scientists are expected to hit Griffin’s desk in a few months time via the NASA Advisory Council.