TPS Weighs In

The Planetary Society, the world's largest space advocacy group, has developed its own plan for the future of space exploration, and will present it to Congress and the new Obama administration.

The centerpiece of the plan is no doubt its call to delay returning to the Moon in favor of an international effort to put humans on Mars. Along the way, the plan would send the first human mission to a near-Earth asteroid. Returning to the Moon would wait until we're ready to undertake the permanent settlement of Mars; the lunar effort then would serve as a testbed for technologies and techniques to be used on Mars.

Going to Mars sooner rather than later is certainly exciting, but it might undervalue the Moon. Even the first humans on Mars will spend weeks or months there; their technology must be completely reliable. NASA plans to test that technology on the Moon first, which certainly seems reasonable. The TPS plan also seems to ignore the economic potential of the Moon, with its low gravity, abundant solar power, and useful natural resources. Sustaining a program of Martian settlement will require a much larger economy than exists today. Developing a space economy that utilizes the unique assets beyond Earth, with a growing economy on the Moon, may be essential to bringing Mars into the human sphere.