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Earlier this month, the president's budget canceled joint U.S.-European robotic missions to Mars in 2016 and Now top science officials say they are scrambling to come up with a plan by the end of the summer for a cut-rate journey to the red planet in

NASA rely much more on commercial companies in the future, for their own future. When Mr. Obama called for the cancellation of Constellation, NASAs human spaceflight program. The stated goals of the program were to gain significant experience in operating away from Earth's environment, develop technologies needed for opening the space frontier, and conduct fundamental science. What a Moon Colony Would Require * Rockets capable of carrying astronauts and cargo to the moon. NASA is developing a new heavy-lift rocket. Newt Gingrich suggests smaller existing rockets could suffice. But smaller rockets would make the mission more complicated because moon-lander pieces would have to be assembled in orbit, as was the Space Station. * A spacecraft that can land on the moon. Such a craft does not exist, but no big technology leaps are needed since NASA did this more than 40 years ago when astronauts landed on the moon. For a permanent base, a larger craft would be needed to ferry the pieces. * Habitats where the astronauts would live. Years ago, NASA began preliminary designs but did not progress far before the program was cancelled. A commercial company, Bigelow Aerospace, believes its technology of inflatable modules can be adapted for lunar habitats. Anything built on the moon would have to withstand the sharp-edged lunar dust and large temperature swings, which go from -200 to +200 degrees Fahrenheit.

It's not that NASA officials don't think Mars is worth exploring further; it's just that they don't think they can afford it anymore. Obama has proposed cutting 10 other federal agency budgets this year including Defense, Homeland Security and Education. NASA's 0.3 percent budget cut was among the smallest. In fact, the $28.3 billion cuts to the Defense Department dwarf NASA's entire $17.7 spending plan for 2013.