"We have a long-term plan to put a man on Mars by 2037," Administrator of National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Michael Griffin said addressing the 58th International Astronautical Congress (IAC) on Monday evening.

He said the NASA looked forward to celebrating the IAC centenary conference on the red planet.

Speaking at an interactive session of space chiefs, Griffin outlined NASA's ambitious plan for the future that involved building a space civilisation.

The US space agency is looking beyond the moon and Mars into the inter-planetary system. "With manned mission to moon from 2020 onwards and Mars a decade later, we want to build a space civilisation for tomorrow," he said.

Calling for greater private investment in launch vehicles to reduce space transportation costs, he felt space tourism held the key to make low cost access to space possible.

"It is the economics that we should see rather than the benefits of international cooperation," he said virtually ruling out ties with other nations in exploration of outer space.

Griffin dismissed a query on NASA's role in regulating space tourism pointing out that there was no such provision in the US laws.