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A special panel convened by the White House to examine space program options after the pensioning off of the space shuttle fleet has come up with seven options.
Img: Mars. Credit: jason42882/Flickr.
Beginning with thousands of options before narrowing them down to 864 permutations, the group was able to bring that figure down to a mere seven options on Wednesday after moving through intensive negotiations.
"All we have to do is get it down to three by next week," said Edward Crawley, panel member and MIT professor of engineering, before adding, "That’s not a joke."
The 10-member Review for U.S. Human Space Flight Plans Committee will then present their three final scenario findings to the president.
Three of the remaining options are understood to fall within the Obama administration's allocated budget for the space program, which allows $81.5 billion USD for U.S. human spaceflight through to 2020.
The other four are considered more grandiose plans and include expensive options such as an attempt to send a manned mission to Mars -- which is supported by Robert Zubrin, president of the Mars Society, who addressed the panel ahead of its final round of deliberations.
"I think this is potentially a great moment," Zubrin said. "You've got a new administration, which is re-examining everything, an administration that is committed to audacity and hope and the fierce urgency of now, and which has sufficient political support in Congress to actually implement a bold program."
Zubrin added that the American people "want and deserve a space program that is really going somewhere."
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