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Affordable Exploration of Mars: Recommendations from a Community Workshop

Authors :
Thronson, Harley A
Carberry, Chris
Cassady, R. Joseph
Cooke, Doug
Kirkpatrick, Jim
Perino, Maria Antonietta
Raftery, Michael
Westenberg, Artemis
Zucker, Richard
Publication Year :
2014
Publisher :
United States: NASA Center for Aerospace Information (CASI), 2014.

Abstract

There is a growing opinion that within two decades initial human missions to Mars are affordable under plausible budget scenarios, with sustained international participation, and --- especially --- without requiring those first missions to achieve a burdensome number of goals. In response to this view, a group of experts from the Mars exploration stakeholder communities attended the "Affording Mars" workshop at George Washington University in December 2013. Participants reviewed scenarios for proposed affordable and sustainable human and robotic exploration of Mars, the role of the International Space Station as the essential early step toward humans to Mars, possible "bridge" or "transition" missions in the 2020s, key capabilities required for affordable initial missions, international partnerships, and usable definitions of affordability and sustainability. We report here the findings, observations, and recommendations that were agreed to at that workshop. In the context of affordable early missions to Mars, we also discuss the recent report of the National Research Council on human space flight and a pair of recent scenarios that appear to promise reduced costs.

Details

Language :
English
Database :
NASA Technical Reports
Publication Type :
Report
Accession number :
edsnas.20140017467
Document Type :
Report