NASA's human space flight program is too underfunded to fly, an independent panel of experts said on Thursday in their final report to US President Barack Obama.

The 155-page document is pretty much along the lines of the review panel's summary report in August. It presents five options for Obama's advisors to choose from to push the space program forward.

"The US human space flight program appears to be on an unsustainable trajectory" due to lack of funds, panel leader Norman Augustine said in the report.

The former president of aerospace giant Lockheed Martin and ex-US Army undersecretary said the goals of the Constellation program launched in 2004 by then president George W. Bush were too much to chew for NASA.

Constellation aims to return to the moon by 2020 and then establish a lunar launchpad for a first human trip to Mars.

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration's yearly budget is about $18-billion, $10-billion of which are ploughed into the human space flight program, chiefly in developing the successor of the space shuttle: the Ares 1 rocket and the Orion Crew Exploration Vehicle.

Ambitious, worthy goal

The Augustine Committee said an additional $3-billion a year are needed for NASA to meet Constellation program goals or take human space flight to the next step beyond the existing International Space Station.

"The committee concludes that the ultimate goal of human exploration is to chart a path for human expansion into the solar system," the report said.

"This is an ambitious goal, but one worthy of US leadership in concert with a broad range of international partners."

The report highlights the uncertain future of the Ares 1, the launch vehicle for the space shuttle's successor. NASA is preparing for the long-awaited maiden test launch of the Ares 1 from Florida's Kennedy Space Center next Tuesday.

The committee made five chief observations and recommendations:

- Space shuttle: the six remaining space shuttle missions should be extended to the first half of 2011 since the present scheduled cut-off date of September 2010 is too tight to ensure a maximum safety margin.

- Intervening period: the shuttle successor will not be up and running before 2017, the committee estimates. In the meantime, NASA will rely on Russia's Soyuz program to send astronauts to the ISS, and the private sector should be encouraged to ferry cargo into low orbit.

- Launchers: several combinations are possible including the Orion launcher Ares 1 rocket; the heavier, more powerful but still undeveloped Ares V rocket; and the shuttle's current launch system technology.

- ISS: the orbiting space station should be maintained beyond 2015 to 2020 to optimise its investment and, above all, to ensure US international leadership in future space exploration missions.

- Mars: the red planet is the ultimate destination of human space exploration but not its prime objective. Returning to the moon and extending the ISS program to 2020 are more practical strategies to follow.

AFP

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