spacetoday.net: Planetary Society proposes alternative exploration plan

Posted: Fri, Nov 14, 2008, 6:26 AM ET (1126 GMT)
The Planetary Society unveiled an alternative approach to space exploration on Thursday that would postpone NASA's current plans to return humans to the Moon by 2020. The society's "Roadmap to Space" features human missions to Mars as its ultimate goal with an enhanced degree of international cooperation among various spacefaring countries. While the plan supports development of new launch vehicles and spacecraft by NASA, it proposes to defer the 2020 lunar landing deadline in favor of missions beyond the Moon, such as to the Lagrange points and to near Earth asteroids. Lunar landings would be performed when they are needed to prepare for missions to Mars. That approach, coupled with more cooperation with other nations, would reduce the financial burden on NASA in the coming decade.