Top NASA officials have picked a leading candidate for the agency's next major mission: construction of an outpost that would send astronauts farther from Earth than they've ever been.

Called the gateway spacecraft, it would hover in orbit on the far side of the moon, support a small crew and function as a staging area for future missions to the moon and Mars.

NASA Administrator Charles Bolden briefed the White House earlier this month on details of the proposal, but it was unclear whether the agency had the administration's support. Of critical importance is the cost, which would probably be billions, if not tens of billions, of dollars.

Documents obtained by the Orlando Sentinel show that NASA wants to build a small outpost likely with parts left over from the $100-billion International Space Station at what's known as the Earth-Moon Lagrange Point 2, a spot about 38,000 miles from the moon.

At that location, the combined gravities of the Earth and moon reach equilibrium, making it possible to "stick" an outpost there with minimal power required to keep it in place.

To get there, NASA would use the massive rocket and space capsule that it is developing as a successor to the retired space shuttle. A first flight of that rocket is planned for 2017, and construction of the outpost would begin two years later, according to NASA documents.

Potential missions include the study of nearby asteroids or robotic trips to the moon that would gather rocks and bring them back to the outpost. The outpost also would lay the groundwork for more-ambitious trips to Mars' moons and even Mars itself, about 140 million miles away on average.

Placing a "spacecraft at the Earth-Moon Lagrange point beyond the moon as a test area for human access to deep space is the best near-term option to develop required flight experience and mitigate risk," the NASA report concluded.

From NASA's perspective, the outpost would solve several problems.

It would give purpose to the Orion space capsule and the Space Launch System rocket, which are being developed at a cost of about $3 billion annually. It would involve NASA's international partners, as blueprints for the outpost suggest using a Russian-built module and components from Italy. And the outpost would represent a baby step toward NASA's larger goal: human footprints on Mars.

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NASA considers orbital outpost near moon as next big project