The latest update suggested that NASA would carry out the Moon mission first before planning to land on Mars. The internet in flooded with the reports that the US Congress wants NASA to first chalk out plans for the Moon mission instead of concentrating on travelling to Mars.

Daily Mail reported that the US Congress officials are determined that NASA should develop plans to reach Moon first and then test the technology and techniques required for the Mars mission. The probable theories which NASA scientists might test on Moon are reported to be lunar prospecting, habitation modules, and landing and ascent vehicles.

"There is no better proving ground than the Moon for NASA to test the technologies needed to successfully meet the goal of sending humans to Mars by the mid-2030s," said Mike Honda, the Congress representative, as reported by CS Monitor.

Further, there are reports that even NASA is willing to focus on the Moon mission in order to achieve their target of Mars travel. According to NASA, the Moon mission would give the scientists a chance to experience the human spaceflight outside the low-Earth orbit before carrying out the actual mission to Mars.

Meanwhile, NASA expressed its thoughts about the future Mars mission on its website. According to the space agency, a human Mars mission would help to know whether life exists outside of our planet Earth reported Mashable.

NASA also commented that the upcoming Mars mission would help to expand the human presence into the solar system, reported The Wall Street Journal. The space agency explained that the 2030 mission to Mars just after the Moon mission would help to learn more about the Earth's history as well as the future happenings.

Amidst all the news about the NASA's Moon mission, few reports claimed that The U.S. government will soon grant permission to a private-sector start-up company, Moon Express, to carry out their own Moon mission. It is reported that the company would be the first organization to carry out nongovernmental mission beyond Earth's orbit to drop a 20-pound payload.

The reports suggested that NASA might attempt to travel to Moon again by 2015 and then carry out its mission to mars in 2030.