What mission would you like NASA to undertake?

I am with quantumclaustrophobe that we need to return to the moon, and possibly build a small moon base. Oh, wait, we were doing that with the Constellation program until the worst president in the last century cancelled it, ignorantly claiming that "we have already been there". Assume that means we cannot possible return. Glad he was not president when the second expedition to explore the West was launched, his reply would have been, "No reason for that, Lewis and Clark have already been there." He ultimately did replace it with a mission to an asteroid, which of course will never be flown since none of the systems required to support it, like a habitat module and propulsions systems, are not planned or funded. The man has the simplistic view that any new mission has to go farther than the Apollo missions, even if such a mission makes no sense at all. Obongo is NO JFK!

I would continue with the Constellation program, changing the mission concept to reduce the huge launch cost of the cancelled Aries boosters or its replacement, the Senate Launch System. Think about the $ to orbit for the Falcon Heavy, a small fraction of what the SLS will cost. Consider that the ONLY currently planned manned Orion mission is essentially a repeat of the Apollo 8 mission of December 1968. Repeating and improving on Apollo 11 is not in his plans.

Sorry for the rant, but as the second engineer from my family to work in aerospace (my dad helped develop the J-2 engine for the Saturn 5), I find it sad that when it looks like we are finally heading back to the moon and then on to Mars, those plans are thwarted by an incompetent community organizer.

I know a robot probe is far more practical, but I'd really love to see (or be on!) a manned mission to Europa. It would land in the Conamara Chaos, a region of fractured and refrozen ice, likely to be the thinnest point between the surface and the subsurface ocean where the ice layer (approx 100 Km thick elsewhere) may be no more than 10 - 15 Km thick. That would still be a long way to get through for the submersible module, but it could do so by melting the ice below it and allowing it to refreeze above it. I hope we would find highly evolved life-forms, possibly even some sort of intelligent squibster (squid/lobster). Well, that's what I'd *like* to happen . . .

How about a mission to create a permanent outpost on Europa,or another water rich world first a satillite to measure the amouint of radiation absorbed by the surface ice if its within a non leathel range ! we can send a few robots to set up a food distribution center along with two giant rockets filled with freeze dried food stuff and,at the same time a exploratory mission into the frozen oceans with rotations back to the earth with a medical team on hand to observe the human beings reactions to the planets different gravitational field.All and all very exciting

I would like for NASA to pursue other earth like planets. I would like them to build more advanced orbiting satellites that can go further in space and take pictures of these earth planets up close...to see what the geographic region is like, the atmospheric conditions, and any kind of life it has on it. It would be neat to build a rover that can land on these planets, even if it doesnt reach the planet for another 30 years... We are not going to find anything useful to us on the moon or any "dead" planets, since these planets have already run their course and offer no use for life on them. It is a waste, imo, to keep going back just to say we have been there. I know Mars may have had life at one time, and thats understandable, but its not going to advance us enough to further our knowledge or be able to sustain life one day, such as an earth like planet would...or even a water world, with little land mass. It only takes 3-4 days to get to the moon, if we are ever going to reach other planets like ours, we have to go further, a trip preferrably that takes 2 weeks or more, to set up a colony...we are more likely to find life out there, far away from here.

If our country would stop going to war all the time, we might be able to fund or afford money for more engineering and advanced technology. Eighteen trillion dollars goes a long way.

As much as the American effort into space has been measured as a success, the expenses as to space are so huge that we cannot afford them. Yes, to know basic stuff as to planets and stars, is considered vital, but we are broke and borrowing money from China to pay for weapons that can be used against China. The military budget was excessive in 2001 and it has DOUBLED since. We have weapons without an enemy so we create enemies. America has been doing this since post WW II. It is all documented. I think NASA needs to stand down and the entire federal government needs to slow down as to the negative force of weapons. That is what I think should be the future of NASA as to space.

Europa mission

I'm not likely to live long enough to see my long-hoped for mission, a submarine lander on Europa, but I'll happily settle for the proposed Enceladus orbiter, to sample to water being geysered out of that moon's interior, with the hope of finding organic molecules there that might indicate the presence of subsurface life.

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Building a space elevator or some other kind of construct (space fountain, launch loop, etc) that enables cheap orbital insertion.

This would reduce the costs almost enough to enable commenters on random websites to designate new missions :)

I'd love a return to the moon - or, better still, a manned mission to Mars. And, a melt-through-the-ice probe to Europa.

A manned mission to Mars, and the Moons of Jupiter.