Analysis of Actors
Space exploration provides opportunities for a multitude of communities to achieve their goals. The number and variety of organizations which express opinions on space policy goes beyond NASA, which acts more as an executor of these policies rather than an advocacy group. A number of these groups strongly support either lunar or Martian missions as the next priority of space exploration programs. However, many organizations have vague opinions on what these priorities should be or have no such opinions at all.
Although groups like the Space Frontier Foundation and the National Space Society do not put forth particular opinions on how NASA should spend its budget, they do promote such end goals as gaining knowledge about the universe and making new frontiers available for human settlement. On the other hand, contractors who stand to benefit from any and all space programs are located in the center of the diagram above due to their profit-seeking motivations.
In between the "Mars" and "Moon" sectors of the diagram lies MarsDrive, which states on its website that it "supports all aspects of space exploration." Expressing stronger pro-Martian views are the Mars Society and the Planetary Society, which differ from the lunar return goals of the Moon Society. However, the Moon Society released a statement in 2004 affirming the commonality of many of its goals with those of the Mars Society. In this release, the Moon Society advertises the practicality of the moon as a "stepping stone" to Mars while admitting that the Red Planet is a richer source of precious metals and other resources.
Perhaps some of the strongest opinions have been expressed by two U.S. senators who favor a return to the moon: John McCain agrees with former President Bush’s 2004 proposal to use the moon as an intermediate goal on the road to more ambitious destinations. Harrison Schmitt, a former senator from New Mexico and Apollo moonwalker himself, resigned from his position on the board of the Planetary Society after it decided to prioritize bolder missions over a lunar return.