The Mars-back Approach: Affordable and Sustainable Exploration of the Moon, Mars, and Beyond Using Common Systems
- Paper number
IAC-05-D3.1.06
- Author
Mr. Paul Wooster, Massachussets Institute of Technology (MIT), United States
- Coauthor
Prof. Edward Crawley, Massachussets Institute of Technology (MIT), United States
- Year
2005
- Abstract
NASA’s Vision for Space Exploration calls for a sustainable program of human and robotic exploration of the Moon, Mars, and beyond. NASA’s Exploration Systems Mission Directorate has selected a spiral development approach for Project Constellation, a program to develop the necessary elements to achieve the Vision for Space Exploration. Success of this spiral development approach will depend on the ability to develop capabilities in stages using evolving, modular components. Each component must be designed with the ability to evolve to meet changing mission requirements. In addition, by using a modular design approach composed of common elements used in different configurations to achieve multiple missions, the required set of exploration missions can be accomplished at a lower overall cost than by designing unique hardware to achieve each mission. While this approach may decrease performance or increase costs of individual elements, the savings over the lifetime of a program can be substantial by decreasing the total number of unique elements that must be developed, produced, and maintained. MIT has developed a Mars-referenced design approach whereby exploration systems are first designed for the typically more strenuous Mars mission requirements and then the capabilities of these systems are projected Moon exploration missions. This approach, called “Mars-back,” enables systems to be developed to more rapidly and cost effectively meet both Mars and Moon mission objectives than through designing unique systems for each objective. In addition, because the hardware designs of the elements being used on the Moon are the same as those to be used on Mars, the early Moon missions envisioned in the Vision for Space Exploration enable direct testing of Mars exploration systems in an environment close to Earth, prior to committing to a long-duration mission to Mars in which fast abort options back to Earth are impossible. Finally, as production lines for the Moon and Mars hardware are the same, there is neither an incentive nor a need to stand-down Moon operations prior to and during Mars missions. This can help keep policy-makers and the public interested in the program and therefore help reduce the risk of program cancellation made possible by any significant mission gap. Also, a continuous set of missions will enable lunar scientific, exploration, and economic objectives to be continued during the exploration of Mars. In this paper we describe the methods by which the Mars-back approach is applied to the design of human exploration transportation architectures and hardware designs. Also, we present the current MIT exploration system designs resulting from this approach. We discuss the methods used to develop the systems using the Mars-back approach which allows the systems to be configured to achieve a variety of lunar, Mars, and other solar system exploration objectives and provide flexibility in terms of specific mission architectures to incorporate new technologies as they become available.
- Abstract document
- Manuscript document
IAC-05-D3.1.06.pdf (🔒 authorized access only).
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