Presidential panel downplays NASA's moon options

WASHINGTON - The presidential panel looking at NASA's human space program spent Wednesday narrowing nearly 900 exploration options into seven scenarios that will be refined for presentation to President Barack Obama later this month.

They range from budget-busting plans to fly straight to Mars to more-affordable plans to just orbit the moon and nearby asteroids. Some would extend the life of the space shuttle, now due for retirement in 2010, and the international space station, now slated to close in 2015.

There was no mention in any options of returning astronauts to the moon by 2020, which is NASA's current goal.

"The ones that are on that list of seven really do represent the possible options that the nation has," said Ed Crawley, an MIT engineer and one of 10 panel members. "What we tried to do is boil it down to (those options) ... that capture the spirit of how we would go forward and explore."

For weeks, the panel has traveled the country seeking input on NASA's future. Obama appointed it largely because of financial and technical problems with NASA's current Constellation plan that relies on a system of new rockets and capsules.

The committee's report is due by Aug. 31.

Its first three options would more or less fit NASA's 2010 budget, which reduces from $108 billion to $81.5 billion the amount available through 2020 for human space exploration.

One would stick to NASA's current plan to retire the shuttle by 2011 and the space station in 2015. But development of the Ares I and V rockets, Orion crew capsule and Altair lunar lander would stretch out, pushing a moon landing to 2028 or later.

A second scenario extends operation of the space station until 2020, using either Ares I or commercial rockets to ferry astronauts there. But flights to the moon or Mars would be delayed even longer.

A third possibility would retire the shuttle and end station operations to finance a dash to fly around the moon or nearby asteroids as soon as possible, scrapping the Ares I for smaller versions of the heavy-lift Ares V rocket.

The other four options exceed current budget projections. Extending the space station to 2020, developing fuel depots in space and using commercial rockets to carry astronauts and cargo into low-Earth orbit would all play a key role. They are:

- Extending the shuttle through 2015, while designing a new rocket making more extensive use of the shuttle's engines, external tank and solid rocket boosters to lift cargo into space.

- Concentrating on flying orbital missions to the moon, Mars or asteroids. The shuttle would be retired in 2011.

- Flying short missions to the moon, using the lunar surface as a test bed for technology to go Mars. The shuttle would be retired in 2010 and a big rocket derived from the shuttle or the military's Delta IV would be developed.

- Going direct to Mars, bypassing the moon and developing the Ares V rocket to carry out the many launches it would take to make it work.

The panel wants to narrow and put a price tag on the scenarios by the time it meets in Washington next week.

(Block reported from Cape Canaveral, Fla.)

(c) 2009, The Orlando Sentinel (Fla.).

Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.