NASA Plans Lunar Colony, Manned Mars Trips

NASA intends to land four astronauts on the Moon by 2018 and six astronauts on Mars thereafter, and in between, to establish a lunar colony complete with its own power plants, reports say. Lunar expeditions on motorized vehicles would conduct field studies of importance to our understanding of intractable scientific enigmas.

The plan is detailed in internal memoranda obtained by the Orlando Sentinel.

For a view of NASA's comprehensive outlook for Project Constellation, read this article.