A BREATH-TAKING bid to colonise the moon and set foot on Mars is to be announced by President George W Bush.
America wants to build a permanent base on the lunar surface and launch the first manned mission to Mars.
A task force led by Vice President Dick Cheney has been considering options for a space mission since summer. The last trip to the moon was in December 1972.
Three senior officials said Mr Bush wanted to aggressively reinvigorate the US space programme, which has been demoralised by a series of setbacks, including the Columbia space shuttle disaster last February that killed seven astronauts.
The officials said the President's announcement would come next week.
Mr Bush has been expected to propose a bold new space mission in an effort to rally Americans around a unifying theme as he campaigns for re-election.
This week, NASA landed a six-wheeled robot on Mars to study the planet. However, the Spirit rover is stuck because the air bags which cushioned its landing are obstructing its movement.
No one, least of all members of Congress, knows how NASA would pay for lunar camps or Mars expeditions.
The President's father, George Bush, pushed such an ambitious idea on the 20th anniversary of the first manned moon landing, when he was in office - but the estimated price tag was as much as $500 billion (£278 billion).
The moon is just a three-day trip, while Mars is at least six months away. The lunar surface, therefore, could be a safe place to store Martian equipment.
Observatories also could be built on the moon, and mining camps could be set up to gather helium-3 for conversion into fuel for use back on Earth.
Former US Senator John Glenn, the first American to orbit the Earth, said the US first needs to complete the international space station and provide the taxi service to accommodate a crew of six or seven. The station currently houses two.
