"The moon can be made into a major asset, rather than just providing light at night," Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, R-Calif., chairman of the House subcommittee on space and aeronautics, said Thursday.
Sen. Sam Brownback, R-Kansas, even talked about a space race between the United States and China, which put its first astronaut into space this fall.
Early reviews of the plan, reported Wednesday by the National Review magazine and Thursday by the New York Post, were mixed.
"Totally embarrassing," said physicist Robert Park of the American Physical Society. "Been there, done that."
"Great idea," said Roger Launius, a space historian at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum. "If we are really going to get off this planet and go to a place like Mars, we've got to learn how to operate in deep space."
The debate over a moon program comes during a difficult time for the space agency, which has been excoriated for inefficiency and lack of focus since the space shuttle Columbia disaster in February.
The administration has been reviewing its space mission. On Wednesday, NASA Administrator Sean O'Keefe said that 2004 would be a "seminal time. ... There's an effort underway that will focus the administration's view very prominently on options we can consider," he said. "We are looking at some significant changes." ***