WASHINGTON, July 20 (States News Service) Space exploration may be the final frontier of the 2000 presidential contest: Mars missions, space stations and NASA have been relatively untouched by either candidate or the talking heads on television talk shows.

Until now.

Advisors to Al Gore and George W. Bush, at a Capitol Hill roundtable held by Women in Aerospace, spelled out the presumed nominees vision for space and aeronautics in what was billed as the first public discussion of space policy under the next administration.

The aides -- Bob Walker, a former Pennsylvania congressman and now a consultant to Bush and Gore advisor Steve Palmer -- said their candidates would support a strong space agenda, including planning for human exploration of Mars.

However, Walker said voters can expect a "new direction" under a Bush presidency.

Walker said although the Texas governor had not yet signed off on a space policy agenda, there are several ideas in the works. He said Bush would spur commercial investment in space while developing a "strategic plan" to tie the space program to military and civilian needs.

Walker said Bush would look for ways to generate commercial growth in space transportation to put humans in space and establish a "permanent presence on the moon and on Mars." One proposal under consideration is handing over the International Space Station (ISS) to a non-governmental organization, and developing property rights for private entities in space.

Other ideas Bush may back include creating a National Aerospace Council, which was dissolved in 1997, and ramping up NASAs budget, Walker said.

Walker criticized the Clinton administrations support for NASA and its budget. "At best they have ignored space and at worst they have used it as a political tool," he said.

Gore who has taken heat for the administrations offer to give Russia a key role in building the space station supports completing the ISS as a "test bed" for missions to Mars and elsewhere, said Palmer. The vice president also backs a global monitoring system to chart weather patterns and other phenomena from satellites.

Palmer said Gore would also back NASAs Mars program, whose future is uncertain, after NASA lost two probes at the Red Planet last year. "The question of human exploration of Mars is not if, but when," Palmer said of a Gore administration.

Citing Gores experience on space issues as a Tennessee senator, Palmer said Gore would make "wise investments" in the aerospace industry, supporting "pushing the envelope" in science, technology and space exploration. "He knows the aerospace industry is a national treasure."

Palmer said NASAs $14 billion budget request, a jump over last year, starts a trend that will lead to "substantial increases" in funding over five years. He said Gore was the "first to step in to try to restore the presidents budget" when Congress slashed NASA funding last year.

Palmer warned that a multibillion-dollar tax cut Bush has proposed $460 billion in tax relief over five years would jeopardize funds for discretionary spending on programs like NASA.

The Clinton administrations plan to build a national missile-defense shield against "rogue" states an idea supported to different degrees by Gore and Bush has come under criticism after antimissile test failures.

Although the vice president has stood by the $60 billion defense system, Palmer said Gore would be "unwilling to move ahead unless the technology will work, its affordable and it will not disturb world peace."