NASA continues to build toward a manned mission to Mars and a new plan to put a space station in orbit above the red planet could help the agency put astronaut boots on the ground.
Using the Orion crew capsule and Space Launch System (SLS) already under construction, NASA could put six astronauts into orbit over Mars for a year.
While they were there, the astronauts would conduct experiments using the Mars rovers in real time, which would improve scientific discoveries absent the 20 minute time delay NASA researchers work under.
With additional Orion capsules they could even visit the two tiny Martian moon and do some exploring of their own.
Coburn Palmer 