You say "miss the moon" as if it couldn't happen. You can miss the earth on reentry if your angle of reentry isn't correct.

True, the moon has gravity, but not enough to slow and trap a capsule without some substantial assistance from that capsule.
Distance has nothing to do with heat??? The earth and moon are the same distance from the sun, and the temps here can get in the mid hundreds, only stopped by our atmosphere. No atmosphere on the moon, nothing to stop the heat from rising and rising. Are you telling me that the entire load of computers, cameras, film, etc was made of space age plastic?

Even down to the circuits and soldering?

If you turn off the fan in your computer at room temperature, watch what happens in a few mins, it'll shut off from over heating.
Have you seen the pics that were taken with the telescope you're mentioning of the lander? If so, post them here so i can learn something new today.
And radiation. Past the radiation belts, i guess none of us can truly answer what it's like out there, because only "a few have been." What i'm trying to say is, we have no choice but to believe what they say about the radiation past those belts.
And it has been said countless times, that a moon based station would be the perfect place to refuel and launch to MARS.

But, why no station

