If you had to choose the subject of NASA's attention over the
next decade, what would you pick? Would you want to push the
space agency to go back to the moon? Would you want it to devote
its budget toward a human mission to Mars? The Review of U.S.
Human Space Flight Plans Committee, a panel ordered to chart the
future of the U.S. space program, is trying to narrow those
possibilities. So far, the group has come up with several ideas
for how NASA should focus its resources (PDF). For starters, one
option the panel has suggested would see NASA focus on
maintaining the International Space Station through 2020, rather
than shuttering its ISS operations at the end of 2015, as
planned. Another option is to get astronauts back to the moon
for the first time since the Apollo program. Another choice
calls for astronauts to explore deep space, eventually traveling
to Mars' moons. The panel also crafted an option that would see
NASA maintain extended stays on Earth's moon. It would enable
astronauts to travel to diffe