Nasa plans to return to the moon by 2020 and then build a perament base there using the Ares-Orion launch system. The moon will then serve as a launchpad for manned exploration of Mars. The Ares-Orion launch system is still having a few problems getting off the drawing board, namely reverberation problems with the solid rocket boosters, recovery of the Ares booster phase, and redesigning the Saturn V's J-2 engines, but by 2020 those are expected to be resolved.