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It took a fatal space shuttle accident to lift the U.S. space program out of low-Earth orbit and redirect it toward the moon. Now the prospect of a new president in office has some scientists wondering if the country has set its sights high enough. Rather than Apollo-era sorties, NASA decided successive moon missions would lay the foundation for a permanently occupied lunar base. Eventually the program, called Constellation, would lead to manned missions to asteroids and Mars. The agency is hoping commercial companies will develop the ability to ferry crews and cargo to the space station once the shuttle is retired. Still, NASA cannot count on that happening. The spaceships NASA has in mind would enable a crew of four to land anywhere on the moon and stay for a week, and later for up to six months. Mars settlement advocate Robert Zubrin wants an asteroid mission as a steppingstone to Mars rather than the moon. He says it could be accomplished within an eight-year presidential term, making it more politically palatable than the moon plan, which currently calls for astronauts on the lunar surface by 2020.
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