Human Mars Mission Design: The Ultimate Systems Challenge

Paper number

IAC-17,A5,2,1,x39997

Author

Mr. John Connolly, National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)/Johnson Space Center, United States

Coauthor

Ms. Michelle Rucker, NASA, United States

Coauthor

Ms. Tara Polsgrove, NASA Marshall Space Flight Center, United States

Coauthor

Mr. Kent Joosten, Booz, Allen & Hamilton, United States

Coauthor

Mr. Bret Drake, The Aerospace Corporation, United States

Coauthor

Dr. Stephen Hoffman, The Aerospace Corporation, United States

Coauthor

Ms. Alida Andrews, The Aerospace Corporation, United States

Coauthor

Dr. Nehemiah Williams, NASA Johnson Space Center, United States

Year

2017

Abstract

A human mission to Mars will occur at some time in the coming decades.  When it does, it will be the end result of a complex network of interconnected design choices, systems analyses, technical optimizations, and non-technical compromises.  A human mission to Mars will extend the technologies, engineering design, and systems analysis to new limits, and may very well be the most complex undertaking in human history.

A human Mars mission can be illustrated as a large menu of design decisions, or as a large decision tree.  Whatever the visualization tool, there are numerous design decisions required to assemble a human Mars mission, and many of these decisions interconnect with one another.  This paper examines these many design decisions, and further details a number of design choices that are highly interwoven throughout the mission design.  The large quantity of design variables, and the interconnectedness of many of the variables, results in a highly complex systems challenge, and the paper illustrates how a change in one design variable results in ripples (sometimes unintended) throughout many other facets of the design.

The paper concludes with a discussion of some mission design variables that can be addressed first, and those that have already been addressed as a result of ongoing NASA developments, or as a result of decisions outside the technical arena.  It advocates the need for “reference design” that can be used as a point of comparison, and to illustrate the system-wide impacts as design variables change.

Abstract document

IAC-17,A5,2,1,x39997.brief.pdf

Manuscript document

IAC-17,A5,2,1,x39997.docx (🔒 authorized access only).

To get the manuscript, please contact IAF Secretariat.