Evolvable Mars Campaign 2016 - A Campaign Perspective

摘要

As the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) progresses on its Journey to Mars, the agency continues to evaluate potential approaches for sending humans beyond low-Earth orbit (LEO). To support these efforts, the Evolvable Mars Campaign (EMC) is actively performing an ongoing series of architectural trade analyses to define the capabilities and elements needed for a sustainable human presence on Mars. Within the scope of the EMC, multiple pathways have been assessed to include exploration system testing on the International Space Station (ISS), followed by missions in cislunar space, which will demonstrate and validate capabilities and technologies to enable future human Mars missions, and then to Mars itself. Each of these potential pathways applies recent architecture trade analysis findings and abides by a set of key principles for sustainable, affordable human exploration of Mars and other deep-space destinations. Pathways include variations on the in-space transportation, different surface access strategies, and options on the order of Mars vicinity destinations, including Mars orbit, Mars's Moon(s), and Mars surface. The intent of the EMC is to inform capability development and provide an assessment of options without prescribing a baseline path to Mars. Therefore, it is beneficial to compare potential pathways to better understand the range of options available for exploration. By varying destinations, milestones, and capabilities, the impact to capability need dates and schedule can be determined. This paper will include the latest EMC architecture studies. The primary focus will be to describe the results of an effort to compare and contrast different pathways under a common set of metrics. A summary of each proposed campaign will be presented, including a description of the overall approach and philosophy for exploration. Using a common set of metrics for comparison, an evaluation of the potential benefits, critical challenges, and uncertainties associated with each campaign will be presented. The analysis framework provides a detailed evaluation of key characteristics of each campaign some of which include a description of the technology and capability developments required to enable the campaign and the uncertainties associated with these developments; an analysis of challenges associated with that campaign; and an evaluation of the extent to which exploration is enabled by the campaign, including the destinations visited and the exploration capabilities provided at those destinations.