In April, President Obama flew to Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, FL, to reveal details of his new strategy for NASA and the future of U.S. spaceflight. Sitting next to the president on Air Force One was Buzz Aldrin, who in July 1969 became the second man to walk on the moon. The seating arrangement was appropriate, since both men share a common goal for the nation's space program: reaching Mars by the mid-2030s.

Like Obama, Aldrin opposes the strategy set by President Bush in 2004 to return humans to the lunar surface by 2020. The cornerstone of Bush's plan for NASA was the Constellation program, which included building two new rockets--Ares I to ferry humans into orbit and Ares V to transport heavy cargo--and a manned exploration vehicle called Orion. But the program fell behind schedule and was over budget (see "The Future of Human Spaceflight," January/February 2010). In January, Obama released a new budget proposal that increased NASA's budget by $6 billion over the next five years but terminated the Constellation program.