During the presidential campaign, Barack Obama promised to "support increased investment in research, data analysis, and technology development across the full suite of exploration missions including the Mars Sample Return mission and future missions to the moon, asteroids, Lagrange points, the outer solar system and other destinations."
 
The U.S. Human Space Flight Plans Committee has spent considerable time discussing this issue and has offered some options. The panel -- more commonly known as the Augustine Committee, after its chairman, Norman Augustine, the former CEO of Lockheed Martin -- 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, perhaps, by exploration of the surface of 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 administration is now weighing its decision on the future course of space missions. The administration's course should become clear no later than February, when it releases its fiscal year 2011 budget request.
 
But for now, we're still in the dark on the administration's priorities. So we'll rate this promise Stalled.