Thank you, Colonel Cunningham, Dr. Aldrin. Senator Cruz. Senator Nelson. Senator Martin. Senator Cruz. Senator Nelson. Senator Marking. Senator Urol. Senator Committee on Space Science and Competitiveness, I wish to thank the Committee for the opportunity to speak with you about the future of American human spaceflight enterprise. This is truly an honor and I applaud you for raising this issue so early in this session. America must be the world leader in human spaceflight. There is no other policy area which so clearly demonstrates American innovation and enterprise than human spaceflight. American leadership is more than simply getting one step ahead of our global competitors. American leadership is inspiring the world by consistently doing what no other nation is capable of doing. We demonstrated that for a brief time 45 years ago. If we wish to retain American leadership in space I believe that early in the next administration the nation must commit to developing a permanent presence on Mars. Another Apollo-like mission to put flags and footprints on Mars does not ensure sustained leadership and lunar settlements will only require a small step for the other nations to catch up. I have a multi-decadele plan with compelling vision that will establish world leadership for the remaining of the century and initial landings on Mars by 2038. It's an integrated plan that knits together return to the moon on a commercial and international basis leveraging asteroid rendezvous and settling Mars on a carefully developed risk mitigation architecture. It includes the use of a robotic cyclor between Mars and Earth that will revolutionize the economy, economics and safety aspects of human missions to Mars. Much analysis has been done on this concept in partnership with the commercial sector, the international community and especially the academic community. All this can be done without being a major budget buster for NASA. The architectures I have developed are driven by several technical principles which I believe are essential to achieving this goal. These principles are part of what I call a unified space vision. One, current programs for commercializing crew and cargo transportation to the international station could expand to provide transport of crews with lifeboat rotations to two indepraudundent stations on either side of the moon. The US will lead other crews from these stations for distant controls of the assembly and checkout of habitational structures and their life support systems. Also intricate rovers will provide ice to rocket fuel resources and other resources. We also have a reliable develop and test most of the systems needed for Mars. We should participate in lunar development but avoid getting our human space flight budget captured by lunar gravity's expensive consumption of funds. Let's establish a lunar infrastructure which barters visits to the surface on international landers. Number three, reduce the cost of sustaining a presence on Mars by deploying outbound cycling spaceships that orbit between Earth and Mars without requiring a great deal of propulsion. Each successive mission would only have to send astronauts, landers and the minor provisions. The in-route provisions are reusable on the cyclor radiation protection. The vast majority of the mass would remain in the orbit between Earth and Mars. Number four, focus on people to Mars to stay. Bringing everyone home after a relatively brief stay is a cost driver. I envision many of the people who go to Mars to remain and establish a permanent settlement. We've developed an inbound cyclor as a means of bringing people back for certain contingencies but the cost of effectively sending the entire launch system to return everyone home on every mission can make the entire venture prohibitively expensive. I provided most of the detail in my written statement then we'll have a much more complete version of this plan once the study of my cyclor concept is conducted by an Aldrin Purdue study that will be finished near the end of April. In closing I encourage you to think about the ability of free markets in space to reduce the cost and power of American ingenuity to solve the most difficult challenge, technical challenges. In my opinion there is no more convincing way to demonstrate American leadership for the remainder of this century than to commit to a permanent presence on Mars. I thank you for your time and look forward to the committee's leadership.