NASA Not Ready To Update 2009 Mars Mission Architecture

摘要

Despite a desire by industry and policymakers for more details about NASA's long-term plans to send humans to Mars, agency officials say they have no immediate plans to revise a Mars mission architecture last updated in 2009. In presentations to a NASA Advisory Council committee Jan. 13 and the full council Jan. 14, William Gerstenmaier, NASA associate administrator for human exploration and operations, said the agency still had more to learn, including studies ongoing with academia, before it would be ready to update those earlier plans. NASA last published a human Mars exploration plan, called a design reference architecture, in July 2009. The 100-page document, the fifth version of that study, outlines how the agency could carry out a human mission to the surface and Mars and back, including the launch vehicles and spacecraft required as well as other critical technologies needed for the mission.