NASA’s crewed Mars mission has been grabbing headlines since its announcement. Now, a House Committee gave a jolt to the space agency’s Journey to Mars initiative by saying that the space program needs a clearer plan to taste success in the deep space mission.

Members of the committee on Science, Space, and Technology said during a special hearing that current Mars plan of NASA doesn’t seem feasible for a long-term space mission. They also said that the space agency requires a huge amount of fund for the voyage- much more than it is currently receiving every year. Some, attending the hearing, also suggested that NASA could rethink about its Mars mission, or divert its attention to the moon before Mars.

The committee members and some other experts argued that NASA doesn’t have a clear road map for Mars journey that could clear the picture. Tom Young, NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center former director, said, “We do not have a planned strategy or architecture with sufficient detail”.

NASA earlier announced that its engineers have been working on a space rocket, called the Space Launch System (SLS), and an Orion capsule, which will take humans to the Red Planet. But, the House Committee thinks the space agency needs much more than what it currently has. NAS has to work on habitat modules, landing systems and launch systems for a return trip to earth, they said. The agency doesn’t have anything to represent on these problems, said John Sommerer, chair of the National Academy of Sciences.

One of the biggest problem NASA faces is ‘deadline’. There is no timeline for the Mars mission, although first test flight of the SLS and Orion combo may take place in 2018.