The preliminary report by a blue-ribbon space policy panel on Sept. 8, 2009, nudged forward several promises made by Barack Obama during the presidential campaign. One of those was to "endorse the goal of sending human missions to the moon by 2020, as a precursor in an orderly progression to missions to more distant destinations, including Mars."

In a 12-page summary of findings, the U.S. Human Space Flight Plans Committee — more commonly known as the Augustine Committee after its chairman, Norman Augustine, the former CEO of Lockheed Martin — drew up a menu of options for future human space flight goals.

In the big picture, the panel called Mars "the ultimate destination for human exploration, but it is not the best first destination." The technical and human challenges involved in starting with a Mars landing are too difficult, the panel said. Instead, the panel urged one of two approaches — "moon first" and "flexible path."

Under "moon first," NASA would use experience operating on the moon's surface as preparation for the goal of exploring Mars later on. Through multiple missions, astronauts could build a base and live there for months in preparation for a trip to Mars, doing things like prospecting for fuel and conducting scientific work.

Under "flexible path," NASA would visit a wider variety of destinations, including lunar orbit, asteroids and the moons of Mars, followed by exploration of the surface of the moon or Mars. The missions would get longer and longer, providing experience in the long transit times required of a trip to Mars.

"The committee finds that both 'moon first' and 'flexible path' are viable exploration strategies," the panel wrote. "It also finds that they are not necessarily mutually exclusive; before traveling to Mars, we might be well served to both extend our presence in free space and gain experience working on the lunar surface."

As for the details of following either approach, the panel offered a number of options, but it said that the only viable ones would require more money than currently envisioned in NASA's budget. Specifically, the panel's proposed budget would phase in increases for NASA — up to $3 billion above the budget that is currently envisioned for fiscal year 2014 — and then expand spending by 2.4 percent per year thereafter.

The key question is whether a moon mission can be achieved by Obama's 2020 goal. The "moon first" or "flexible path" approaches are feasible, the panel concluded. The moon strategy could send a human to the lunar surface by the mid 2020s, while the flexible path option could permit either a human trip to a moon of Mars or the lunar surface by the mid to late 2020s.

Either option is slower than Obama's promise envisioned, but the Augustine Committee's goals for human exploration are generally about the same as Obama's. Officially, the Augustine Committee's findings are only options for the administration to consider. And as of this writing, the full report is not out. But the panel's deliberations are being taken very seriously in NASA, at the White House, in Congress and in the larger space community, so the discussion of the moon strategy is enough for us to rate this one In the Works.