I normally pitch it as "the hopeful science fiction we have been waiting for"

It makes sense that you don't think so much of the moon, @dinosaur after all, you are the high priest in what is clearly a sun-god worshipping cult (don't mean "cult" in a bad way, can write culture without cult ;) desmond is a classic sun-god architype. Of course, the sun is very blight and seems the most important thing in the sky... until the night, of course... which the sun is ignorant of.

The moon is more mysterious.
If you have to ask why the moon is important, then sorry, you won't know.