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As human exploration endeavors begin to set sights beyond low Earth orbit to the surface of the Moon, exploration of the surface of Mars continues to serve as the “driving destination” to help focus development and research efforts. One Mars exploration strategy often discussed is the notion of utilizing the moons of Mars, namely Phobos, as an exploration destination prior to Mars surface missions. This strategy is sometimes advocated based on the premise that staging missions from Mars' moons as well as exploring the moons themselves would be less costly and risky. However, understanding potential advantages of Phobos staging and exploration must be done in the context of the overall end-to-end Mars surface exploration needs, goals, objectives, campaign approach, and systems required. This paper examines the strategic implications of utilizing the moons of Mars as a potential location for exploration of Mars. Operational concepts utilizing both Phobos and Mars orbital strategies will be examined to understand the architectural impacts of this staging strategy. The strategic implications of each operational concept are assessed to determine the overall key challenges and strategic links to other exploration destinations. Results from this analysis indicate that, if the objective is to conduct Mars surface missions, utilizing Phobos as an exploration destination adds little benefit toward the goal of exploration of Mars.

International audience; The Origins Space Telescope will trace the history of our origins from the time dust and heavy elements permanently altered the cosmic landscape to present-day life. How did galaxies evolve from the earliest galactic systems to those found in the universe today? How do habitable planets form? How common are life-bearing worlds? We describe how Origins was designed to answer these alluring questions. We discuss the key decisions taken by the Origins mission concept study team, the rationale for those choices, and how they led through an exploratory design process to the Origins baseline mission concept. To understand the concept solution space, we studied two distinct mission concepts and descoped the second concept, aiming to maximize science per dollar and hit a self-imposed cost target. We report on the study approach and describe the concept evolution. The resulting baseline design includes a 5.9-m diameter telescope cryocooled to 4.5 K and equipped with three scientific instruments. The chosen architecture is similar to that of the Spitzer Space Telescope and requires very few deployments after launch. The cryo-thermal system design leverages James Webb Space Telescope technology and experience.

A major challenge of designing a bioregenerative life support system for Mars is the reduction of the mass, volume, power, thermal and crew-time requirements. Structural mass of the greenhouse could be saved by operating the greenhouse at low atmospheric pressure. This paper investigates the feasibility of this concept. The method of equivalent system mass is used to compare greenhouses operated at high atmospheric pressure to greenhouses operated at low pressure for three different lighting methods: natural, artificial and hybrid lighting.

This paper will describe the benefits of execution of the Asteroid Redirect Mission as an early mission in deep space, demonstrating solar electric propulsion, deep space robotics, ground and on-board navigation, docking, and EVA. The paper will also discuss how staging in trans-lunar space and the elements associated with this mission are excellent building blocks for subsequent deep space missions to Mars or other destinations.

The Mars Program Planning Group (MPPG) was chartered in March 2012 by the NASA Associate Administrator for Science, in collaboration with NASA’s Associate Administrator for Human Exploration and Operations, Chief Scientist, and Chief Technologist. The MPPG developed foundations for a program-level architecture for robotic exploration of Mars that is consistent with the President’s challenge of sending humans to Mars in the decade of the 2030’s, yet remains responsive to the primary scientific goals of the 2011 NRC Decadal Survey for Planetary Science. The MPPG also delineated potential mission scenarios, including several possible options, in sufficient detail for NASA to be able to select high pay-off mission(s) beginning with the 2018 launch opportunity. This effort, which included members from the science, human exploration, and space technology directorates, provided an overall framework for Mars exploration planning and several options for the next strategic Mars Exploration Program mission to follow the Mars Science Laboratory.

This paper describes NASA s current plans for the exploration of Mars by human crews within NASA s Capability-Driven Framework (CDF). The CDF describes an approach for progressively extending human explorers farther into the Solar System for longer periods of time as allowed by developments in technology and spacecraft systems. Within this framework, Mars defines the most challenging objective currently envisioned for human spaceflight. The paper first describes the CDF and potential destinations being considered within this framework. For destinations relevant to the exploration of Mars, this includes both the Martian surface and the two moons of Mars. This is followed by a brief review of our evolving understanding of Mars to provide the context for the specific objectives set for human exploration crews. This includes results from robotic missions and goals set for future Martian exploration by NASA's community-based forum, the Mars Exploration Program Analysis Group (MEPAG) and the MEPAG-sponsored Human Exploration of Mars - Science Analysis Group (HEM-SAG). The paper then reviews options available for human crews to reach Mars and return to Earth. This includes a discussion of the rationale used to select from among these options for envisioned Mars exploration missions. The paper then concludes with a description of technological and operational challenges that still face NASA in order to be able to achieve the exploration goals for Mars within the CDF.

The current United States Space Policy [1] as articulated by the White House and later confirmed by the Congress [2] affirms that “[t]he extension of the human presence from low-Earth orbit to other regions of space beyond low-Earth orbit will enable missions to the surface of the Moon and missions to deep space destinations such as near-Earth asteroids and Mars.” Human exploration of the Moon and Mars has been the focus of numerous exhaustive studies and planning, but missions to Near-Earth Asteroids (NEAs) has, by comparison, garnered relatively little attention in terms of mission and systems planning. This paper examines the strategic implications of human exploration of NEAs and how they can fit into the overall exploration strategy. This paper specifically addresses how accessible currently known NEAs are in terms of mission duration, technologies required, and overall architecture construct. Example mission architectures utilizing different propulsion technologies such as chemical, nuclear thermal, and solar electric propulsion were formulated to determine resulting figures of merit including number of NEAs accessible, time of flight, mission mass, number of departure windows, and length of the launch windows. These data, in conjunction with what we currently know about these potential exploration targets (or need to know in the future), provide key insights necessary for future mission and strategic planning. The analysis suggests that a human mission to a NEA is more representative of a human mission to Mars, and thus would more suitably serve as a final demonstration test of the Mars systems rather than the first human mission beyond low-Earth orbit.1, 2

In the fourth quarter of 2009 an in-house, multi-center NASA study team briefly examined "Flexible Path" concepts to begin understanding characteristics, content, and roles of potential missions consistent with the strategy proposed by the Augustine Committee. We present an overview of the study findings. Three illustrative human/robotic mission concepts not requiring planet surface operations are described: assembly of very large in-space telescopes in cis-lunar space; exploration of near Earth objects (NEOs); exploration of Mars' moon Phobos. For each, a representative mission is described, technology and science objectives are outlined, and a basic mission operations concept is quantified. A fourth type of mission, using the lunar surface as preparation for Mars, is also described. Each mission's "capability legacy" is summarized. All four illustrative missions could achieve NASA's stated human space exploration objectives and advance human space flight toward Mars surface exploration. Telescope assembly missions would require the fewest new system developments. NEO missions would offer a wide range of deep-space trip times between several months and two years. Phobos exploration would retire several Marsclass risks, leaving another large remainder set (associated with entry, descent, surface operations, and ascent) for retirement by subsequent missions. And extended lunar surface operations would build confidence for Mars surface missions by addressing a complementary set of risks. Six enabling developments (robotic precursors, ISS exploration testbed, heavy-lift launch, deep-space-capable crew capsule, deep-space habitat, and reusable in-space propulsion stage) would apply across multiple program sequence options, and thus could be started even without committing to a specific mission sequence now. Flexible Path appears to be a viable strategy, with meaningful and worthy mission content.

This paper provides a summary of the 2007 Mars Design Reference Architecture 5.0 (DRA 5.0) [1], which is the latest in a series of NASA Mars reference missions. It provides a vision of one potential approach to human Mars exploration, including how Constellation systems could be used. The strategy and example implementation concepts that are described here should not be viewed as constituting a formal plan for the human exploration of Mars, but rather provide a common framework for future planning of systems concepts, technology development, and operational testing as well as potential Mars robotic missions, research that is conducted on the International Space Station, and future potential lunar exploration missions. This summary of the Mars DRA 5.0 provides an overview of the overall mission approach, surface strategy and exploration goals, as well as the key systems and challenges for the first three concepts for human missions to Mars.1,2

Two alternate mission strategies are presented to NASA's autumn 1990 Report of the 90-day Study on Human Exploration of the Moon and Mars. Emphasis is placed on the lunar portion of these missions. The first emphasizes exploration of both the moon and Mars prior to committing to a permanent outpost. This exploration strategy could provide detailed information about the planets allowing for efficient systems designs and outpost emplacement, and relys heavily on both manned and robotic missions. The second strategy emphasizes aggressively expanding human presence into the solar system, relying on using the local resources to the maximum extent possible to reduce the resupply equipment from earth, with the eventual aim of becoming nearly self-sufficient.

Samples from strategically chosen lunar sites could help resolve some of the most important issues in planetary science [Taylor, 1992] regarding impact processes, the formation of planets and their satellites, and the bombardment history of the Earth-Moon system. Robotic sampling offers a new, cost-effective means of sampling rocks and soil from lunar sites not yet probed. The ideal mission would retrieve at least 100, and preferably >500, rocks 0.5g or larger in mass. Considering the peculiar impact-jumbled, minimally weathered nature of the lunar crust, all but a few exceptionally young terrains can be sampled by a simple, lightweight mechanical probe. It would land, scoop, and sieve a few liters of soil near its landing site and then return to Earth with roughly ¾ kg of sieve-concentrated small rocks plus ¼ kg of unsieved regolith.