Here’s a meme you sometimes hear repeated in space science communities: The return of humans to the moon — formerly known as President Bush’s Vision for Space Exploration — has nothing to do with science. We’ve already been there. We already know everything. It’s just a waste of money — money that would be better spent elsewhere.

Now, to be fair, there are some reasons to be cynical about NASA’s human exploration program; the rocket builders who push people into space sometimes view science as something to be tacked on. And many space scientists argue that robots will always bring more science bang for the buck.

But to say that there aren’t space scientists who are excited to get another crack at understanding the moon — either via manned or unmanned missions — is just plain wrong.

There are scientists at this conference trembling to return. Some of them may actually return: There are signs that NASA, this time, will try to recruit some geologists and geochemists to be astronauts.

Lunar science is back in vogue, and this particular conference is living proof. As I overheard one Johnson Space Center scientist saying to a colleague today: “This meeting will be the resurrection of the Moon. I mean, lunar sessions are standing room only. Mars sessions? So so.”

NASA is lining up a string of lunar missions to support the science: LRO (mapping), then GRAIL (gravity), LADEE (dust), a couple robotic landers, then the start of the International Lunar Network, a set of geophysical stations spaced around that gray globe.

But it’s not just the missions. If you really want to know what drives space science, look at the research and analysis money that NASA allocates for specific subjects. R&A, as it’s called, is the bread and butter money that both inspires and sustains working scientists.

And Jim Green, NASA’s director of planetary science, put up some telling figures this afternoon. In 2007, NASA spent $3.8 million on lunar research. They have $18.7 million allocated in 2008. And in 2009, they plan on spending $25 million on lunar science.

That’s a hair more than the former favorite, the Mars program, will get in R&A in 2009 ($24.938 million). Might NASA have a new teacher’s pet?