The next president of the United States should give NASA an additional $3 billion each year, both to get to Mars and to focus attention on science issues in space and on Earth, a group of scientists, industry figures and former astronauts said on Thursday.

Back to the Moon? Push on to Mars? Visit an asteroid? At Stanford University on Tuesday, 50 space experts and advocates from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, industry, academia and advocacy groups are gathering to ask whether the United States is on the right track in its plans to reach the Moon by 2020, build a long-term lunar base there and eventually send humans to Mars.

The objective of the Aurora Programme is first to formulate and then to implement a European long-term plan for the robotic and human exploration of solar system bodies holding promise for traces of life.