NASA is undergoing an important change, said John Logsdon, director of the Space Policy Institute at George Washington University in Washington, D.C. There is recent encouragement from top NASA officials that the agency's space planners should become "open and explicit" about the wherewithal for going beyond Earth orbit, he said.

"NASA seems to me to be coming out of a low point, after the months of uncertainty about the future of the ISS and the shuttle," Logsdon said.

Some space veterans urge NASA to wean itself off of the glory days of Project Apollo -- the lunar landing effort. Paul Spudis, a space scientist formerly with the Lunar and Planetary Institute, is one of them. Spudis will soon start work at a facility that contracts to build and manage NASA missions, the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Maryland.

"NASA has a problem," Spudis says. "It's trying to come up with some rationale that will recreate Apollo … and that's not going to happen."

Apollo was not about exploring the Moon. In fact, it was not about space at all, Spudis said during a recent gathering of lunar scientists.

"It was basically a battle in the Cold War," a super-charged competition between the former Soviet Union and the United States, Spudis said.

NASA's current mantra -- to seek and understand life in the universe and to send life out there -- is not a mission, Spudis contends. "That's a catechism…a catechism of the true believer. The problem with catechisms is that they are not embraced by the non-believers."

Spudis considers a human return to the Moon within 5 years a doable proposition. Also, it's a politically viable time horizon. Besides, such a program builds up national economic infrastructure and national security.

"A Mars mission doesn't do either of these things, but a Moon mission does both," Spudis said.

Utilizing existing space-launch capability, the ISS, and the L1 Gateway as a jumping off point, reaching for the Moon can be within reach once again, Spudis figures. Once there, learning how to use the precious resources that exist on the Moon for civilian government, private sector, and military purposes is on top of the to-do list.

Meanwhile, one outcome of such a program would be a cultivated region of space between low Earth orbit and the Moon.

Stirring up political will in Congress to plow money into space and ease up on entitlement spending will be necessary if NASA is to sustain a more vibrant program. So argues Harrison Schmitt, an Apollo 17 moonwalker and former U.S. Senator from New Mexico.

Schmitt senses that NASA must revisit its roots. That is, mimic its predecessor, the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA). Before being turned into NASA in 1958, NACA spurred the aeronautical industry into existence, as well as created the tone for private sector investment in air transportation. That needs to happen for space, he said.

Looking back at Apollo, Schmitt adds a cautionary note.

"Deep space is still a very difficult place to work. A highly competent, highly disciplined management structure is going to be essential," the former astronaut said. "That was what made Apollo work, in addition to the motivation and enthusiasm of people in their twenties, those that were actually carrying the spear," he said.

"We can work in low Earth orbit now, with a less than competent management structure," Schmitt says. "We're proving it every day." But deep space exploration requires the discipline and competence that drove the Apollo successes, he said.

"Some day we will extend beyond the Moon," Schmitt says. "But it's not there yet."