CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. Buoyed by Mars Odysseys successful dive into Martian orbit, NASA chief Dan Goldin told crews aboard the International Space Station Wednesday that they are paving the way for a human expedition to the Red Planet.

Calling the six astronauts and cosmonauts aboard the station "pioneers," the NASA administrator said research on the station, combined with the robotic reconnaissance of the Red Planet, would provide the technological prowess needed to safely send human crews to Mars.

"I feel that we are now taking the steps to go to Mars with people," Goldin said in a space-to-ground radio chat with station skipper Frank Culbertson, his two cosmonaut colleagues and a visiting Soyuz taxi crew.

"Maybe my granddaughter and your grandchildren can settle Mars together," Culbertson replied.

A joint project of 16 nations on four continents, the station now serves as an international laboratory for studying, among other things, the potentially debilitating effects of space travel on the human body.

Research to date has shown that zero and low gravity environments can weaken the heart and lungs as well as the skeletal, muscular and immune systems.

Whats more, space radiation can exposes astronauts and cosmonauts an increased chance of developing cancer during their lifetimes.

Medical and radiobiology studies on the station, however, are expected to provide scientists and engineers with the data they need to safely launch round trip human missions to Mars.

And French researcher Claudie Haignere, who boarded the station Tuesday, told Goldin that the orbital outpost already is providing a space platform for doing just that.

"I know we are really impressed by the way that we can use it for technical and scientific work," said Haignere, a rheumatologist who holds a doctorate in neuroscience. "We are already busy and very impressed by the capability of this system to go farther."

Flying with cosmonauts Victor Afanasyev and Konstantin Kozeev, Haignere and her crewmates delivered a new Russian Soyuz lifeboat to the station after a two-day trip from Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.

The three also will be carrying out a variety of experiments, including cardiovascular and biological research as well as a study of environmentally sensitive areas on Earth.

Less than a day after their arrival at the station, NASAs Mars Odyssey spacecraft slipped into orbit around the Red Planet for what promises to be a two-and-a-half-year study of the chemical and mineral make-up of the Martian surface.

Odysseys dive into Martian orbit came two years after the back-to-back failures of two other NASA craft: Mars Climate Orbiter and Mars Polar Lander, both of which were lost upon arrival at the planet.

"Im feeling a little heady today," Goldin told the station crews. "We just orbited Mars last night and we proved that we know how to come back from failure and succeed and learn."

"We were very happy about that also," Culbertson replied. "Its a great achievement."

Cosmonaut Mikhail Turin, meanwhile, said scientific research on the international outpost is not the only way station crews will be contributing to preparations for a human Mars mission.

A rookie flight engineer, Turin said that the $60 billion station construction project which involves space agencies from the U.S., Russia, Europe, Canada, Japan and Brazil would serve as a management test-bed for an international expedition to Mars.

"The Mars project, in our opinion, is going to be a very complicated and very expensive project. Thats why more than likely it will be an international project," Turin said.

"And our role, our responsibility, is to help get some experience for the management of such an international project."

Afanasyev and his Soyuz taxi crew are in the midst of a weeklong stay at the station. He, Kozeev and Haignere will return to Earth next Tuesday in an older Soyuz that has been parked at the outpost since April 30.

Launched in August, Culbertson, Turin and crewmate Vladimir Dezhurov now have been in space for 75 days. The trio is scheduled to return to Earth Dec. 10 aboard NASAs shuttle Endeavour.