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Nasa today hailed a proposal by President Barack Obama to boost spending for the US space agency by 2.9 per cent.  

The agency's administrator, Charles Bolden, said this will help Nasa make strides in the journey toward Mars, where a human mission is planned for the 2030s.

However, Nasa could be axing its long-lived Mars rover Opportunity mission in 2016 after there were no allocated funds in the White House's fiscal year budget request.

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The agency's administrator, Charles Bolden (pictured), said that Nasa has made strides in the journey toward Mars - where a human mission is planned for 2030s - following the test flight of Orion

The space agency said this was no etched in stone, and they have not yet axed Opportunity — or the agency's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO), which is in the same situation.

The $18.5 billion budget request, also includes funding for developing a mission to Jupiter's moon Europa, and the agency's asteroid redirect mission (ARM).

Although Obama's overall $4 trillion US budget plan faces an uphill climb through Republican-controlled Congress, support for the space agency tends to reach across bipartisan lines.

'President Obama is proposing a fiscal year 2016 budget of $18.5 billion dollars for Nasa, building on the significant investments the administration has made in America's space program over the past six years,' Bolden said.

Nasa could be axing its long-lived Mars rover Opportunity mission in 2016 after there were no allocated funds in the White House's fiscal year budget request

The $18.5 billion budget request, also includes funding for developing a mission to Jupiter's moon Europa (pictured), and the agency's asteroid redirect mission

'That's a half-billion-dollar increase over last year's enacted budget, and it is a clear vote of confidence in you - the employees of Nasa - and the ambitious exploration program you are executing.'

Bolden said key areas of focus for Nasa are continuing to prepare a manned mission to Mars, as well as developing advanced solar electric propulsion systems needed for an asteroid redirect mission.

'We have identified several asteroids that could be good candidates and will make a decision soon on a capture option.'

Bolden also touched on a new mission in the works for Jupiter, but gave few details.

'Looking to the future, we're planning a mission to explore Jupiter's fascinating moon Europa, selecting instruments this spring and moving toward the next phase of our work.'

In 2011, Nasa sent a billion-dollar solar-powered spacecraft called Juno on a five-year journey to Jupiter.

Juno, which should arrive in July 2016, was launched just over two weeks after the final space shuttle mission returned to Earth and the 30-year program was shuttered for good.

The European Space Agency already has an unmanned spacecraft in the works to explore Jupiter's icy moons, including Europa.

The Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer, or Juice, will be launched in 2022, arriving at Jupiter in 2030 for a mission lasting three years.

The proposed Nasa budget is up 2.9 per cent.

The exploration budget — which includes Nasa's plans to grab either an asteroid or a chunk of an asteroid and haul it closer to Earth for exploration by astronauts — gets a slight bump in funding. 

But the details within the overall exploration proposal are key. 

The Obama plan would put more money into cutting-edge non-rocket space technology; give a 54 per cent spending jump to money sent to private firms to develop ships to taxi astronauts to the International Space Station; and cut by nearly 12 per cent spending to build the next government big rocket and capsule to carry astronauts. 

Animation reveals NASA's proposed Asteroid Redirect Mission

Congress in the past has cut the president's proposed spending on the private firms and technology and boosted the spending on the government big rocket and capsule.

The president's 0.8 per cent proposed increase in Nasa science spending is his first proposed jump in that category in four years. 

It's also the first proposed jump in years in exploring other planets. It includes extra money for a 2020 unmanned Martian rover and continued funding for an eventual robotic mission to Jupiter's moon Europa. But the biggest extra science spending goes to study Earth.

Obama's budget would cut aeronautics research 12 per cent from current spending and slash Nasa's educational spending by 25 per cent. 

It also slightly trims the annual spending to build the over-budget multi-billion dollar James Webb Space Telescope, which will eventually replace the Hubble Space Telescope and is scheduled to launch in 2018.

Nasa said that axing Opportunity was not yet set in stone and they have yet to make a decision on the rover