NASA's L2 Plans

According to reports, NASA and the Obama administration have been quietly at work developing a new plan for U. S. manned spaceflight.

NASA wants to build a manned outpost at the Earth-Moon L2 point.  That's a point in space beyond the Moon where the gravitational influences of the Earth and Moon cancel each other out.  A spacecraft placed there would stay there with little or no further expenditure of fuel.  NASA, therefore, thinks an outpost there-- which could be built with international partners-- would be the ideal place to learn to live in deep space.  It could also serve as a staging site for missions deeper into space.  Finally, astronauts stationed there could teleoperate a fleet of rovers on the lunar surface, conducting an exploration of the Moon's far side.

The plans calls for establishing the outpost by 2021, before sending astronauts to an asteroid by 2025.  The proposal will not call for an increase in NASA's budget.