Space

I mean, this may sound stupid, but I have 'prototyped' this kind of idea in a highly modified KSP, KSP Realism Overhaul, with a whole suite of realism mods, space and aerodynamics physics overhauls, realistic weights and thrust values and random failures, coded my own flight routines, blah blah blah.

It generally works in concept, and yes the crazy part is that it is basically the same or quite similar to the original Gateway idea...

But that all got thrown out the window with NASA higher ups going all in on SpaceX.

Look up Kathy Leuders. She personally did the assessment of Starship + Heavy Booster as reasonable and adequate... and I do mean personally. She wrote the whole document in first person.

Then, she resigned a few months after that, and now gets paid handsomly as an employee for SpaceX.

It is the exact same regulatory capture bullshit, the industry exec to government official to lobbyist charade that plauges other industries.