I've not yet read the full 150+ page committee report, but I have read the about 15 page executive summary. The committee outlines 8 options based on two different funding assumptions. All 8 options extend Shuttle flights another year through 2011 as the committee claims that will be necessary anyway to complete the ISS. The committee notes that this will subvert the planned funding of the Constellation system and treats the Ares and the remaining components of the Constellation system skeptically for that reason and because it expects the system to take longer.
While a couple of the options retain funding assumptions associated with the currently planned de-orbiting of the ISS in 2016 the committee strongly recommends against doing so. The committee feels the plan to terminate ISS so shortly after it becomes fully operational is a massive waste and that the ISS should be maintained, and elevated to a higher orbit, to allow it to continue functioning for four more years until 2020.
As for Mars, the committee describes it as unquestionably the most scientifically interesting destination in the inner solar system" but concludes that even while "Mars is the ultimate destination for human exploration of the inner solar system, it is not the
best first destination." Accordingly, the committee recommends either going to the Moon first or a "flexible path" of other deep space targets (e.g. asteroids or Moons of Mars). Between the two the committee appears to favor the flexible path.
The first two options are based on maintaining the current level of NASA real funding and both involve effectively abandoning manned space exploration. That's because the committee concluded that there is no plan compatible with current "budget profile that permits human exploration to continue in any meaningful way."
The remaining six options are split evenly between various Moon first and Flexible Path options. All involve increasing NASA funding by about $3 billion a year above current real dollar levels. The Moon first options don't actually get us there till the mid-2020s.
The Flexible Path options don't rule out some manned lunar exploration but treats the Moon primarily as a testing ground rather than a destination or colony site. Mars remains the ultimate destination (for an unknown stated time well in the future) with missions starting in the mid-2020s to other deep space objectives such as a near Earth asteroid, the Moons of Mars, or "Lagrange Points" (areas of deep space stable orbits for larger space platforms).
The three Moon first options and three Flexible Path options differ primarily in the specifics of the various vehicles NASA would develop to accomplish the similar goals. Of the various approaches, the committee seems to prefer the Flexible Path while scrapping the Ares I rocket in favor of accelerating production of the heavy lift "Ares V Lite" rocket to be used in a dual mode to launch both the Orion crew capsule on one launch and the Altair lander system on another.
"A man never drinks anything that a plant lives in" --DBone (A Real Man).
http://vimeo.com/4938173
