NASA is expected to announce as early as October how it will deal with a newly mandated 5 percent budget cut, while rumblings of potentially deeper budget woes have begun to surface in the space community as the nation mobilizes its military in the wake of the September 11 terrorist strikes on American soil. The directive to cut the budget by 5 percent was issued by the White House on September 10. Decisions about possible cutbacks to the Mars exploration program and other cost savings may come as early as October and almost surely by the end of the year.