An Integrated Architecture for Exploration
- Paper number
IAC-10.A5.4.1
- Author
Mr. Walter Faulconer, Strategic Space Solutions, LLC, United States
- Coauthor
Ms. Cheryl Reed, The John Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, United States
- Year
2010
- Abstract
The President’s FY2011 budget cancels the Constellation program to return to the moon, go on to Mars and beyond. In it’s place is a new strategy called “Flexible Path” for NASA to develop technology to enable human exploration missions to the Moon, Lagrange points, near Earth Asteroids, Mars Moons and Mars. This has re-opened age old debates in exploration circles: • Robotic versus Human missions • Science versus Exploration • Moon versus Mars • Government versus Commercial • United States versus International The Augustine Committee reported that none of the alternatives reviewed were affordable in the current budget. Is the new strategy affordable and sustainable? This paper will address some of these issues and propose a way forward that achieves the common goals of whether it is called Flexible Path or Vision for Space Exploration.
- Abstract document
- Manuscript document
(absent)