New York: United States is likely to announce establishing a permanent Moon base or a manned mission to Mars to mark the centenary celebrations of the first human flight, media reports said.

President George W Bush is likely to announce a new goal for the nation's space programme as early as on Wednesday (Dec17, 2003) to coincide with the 100th anniversary of the first manned flight by the Wright brothers, Cable News Network (CNN) reported.

National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has refused to comment on the report. However, NASA said a multi-agency task force was weighing options. The profit margins for such missions would be relatively thin, for whichever company is awarded the prime contract for such an effort, CNN quoted aerospace analysts.

The project may probably be awarded to Boeing Company or Lockheed Martin Corporation, CNN said.

"Neither of those companies makes a significant portion of their money in the segment," said Deutsche Bank Securities analyst Chris McCray told the network.

"It's a low-margin business. It's not bad business, but it's not going to move the needle more than a big defence contract, (or) maybe even a medium-size defence contract." Contractors believe plans for a shuttle replacement won't be derailed by efforts to go to Mars to the moon.

Even company executives, while expressing interest in any big new human space flight effort, agree that the impact on their bottom lines would be limited.

"I personally don't see a huge increase in NASA's budget, or a huge windfall for contractors," Michael Coats Vice President, Advanced Space Transportation for Lockheed Martin Space Systems said.

PTI