Moon may be stop on Mars mission

CRAWFORD, Texas — President Bush wants to make the moon a testing ground and jumping-off point for future missions to Mars and perhaps even to asteroids, administration officials said Sunday.

To make way for the next generation of space exploration, the president will call for the retirement of space shuttle program by the end of this decade, said the officials, speaking on condition of anonymity.

The shuttles are the only way to haul much of the equipment to the International Space Station, but by then, the United States would have completed its commitment to the orbiting facility, the officials said.

Bush's new space initiative, to be made public in Washington on Wednesday, aims to pave the way for manned missions to other, more remote destinations such as Mars and asteroids. It also would make the costs of such explorations lower than they would be from Earth, administration officials said.

But they said the president doesn't foresee a settlement on the moon for 10 to 15 years, and on Mars for 25 to 30 years.

The architects of Bush's long-range space plan cite several advantages to setting up camp on the moon. Its gravitational field is about one-sixth that of Earth's, meaning it would take less energy — and money — to launch spacecraft from there.

The moon would be an ideal place to assemble equipment such as housing that would then be transported farther afield. It is close enough to Earth that communications with the planet would be easy. Its poles may contain frozen water.

And astronauts could develop new technologies and perform simulated exercises on its surface.

"The moon is the proving ground and that's where we need to be going," said Don Nelson, a retired NASA engineer whose career spanned Gemini, Apollo and the space shuttle. He helped calibrate the necessary propellant, lights, gas and water for the lunar landers.

Current government planning calls for modest increases in NASA spending in the next few years, and Bush does not plan to call for a dramatic hike, administration officials said.

The new space proposals will not undermine Bush's goal of cutting the federal deficit in half within five years, Treasury Secretary John Snow said Sunday.

Snow said the new space proposals, which include a permanent settlement on the moon and setting a goal of sending Americans to Mars, will be undertaken "within a framework of fiscal responsibility."