Could SpaceX Get to the Moon Faster and Cheaper than NASA?

If NASA has its way, it'll be at least 10 years before Americans set foot on the moon again, and the cost will be measured in tens of billions of dollars. But there is a better way, which would be both faster and cheaper, using existing SpaceX boosters.

The plan, called Moon Direct, would use three Falcon Heavy and one Falcon 9 launches to land the material necessary for a lunar outpost followed by a crewed Dragon lander. It would be far, far cheaper than NASA's plan, which involves several launches of its unproven and hideously expensive Space Launch System.

Moon Direct requires relatively little launch mass and largely uses existing technologies.

Following our assumption that launch costs and non-launch costs will be roughly equal, we could execute our setup missions (two flights for Phase 1 and two Phase 2 missions) for about $1.5 billion. Recurring missions will cost $420 million per year. This is two percent of NASA’s current budget. This is very inexpensive by the standards of human space programs. NASA’s human spaceflight program total budget is currently around $10 billion per year with little clear purpose.

Unfortunately, given the US Congress' propensity for funding expensive NASA programs as the basis of job creation for their districts, I don't see much likelihood of this plan happening, unless a private company, or consortium of companies takes it on.