Mission to Planet Mars

Abstract

Traditionally, Mars mission plans include long-duration human surface stays. The “Mission to Planet Mars” (MTPM) concept contends that human surface visitation is nonessential to achieving exceptional results from an initial human mission to Mars, and that humans operating from Mars orbit could achieve more exploration and science, more safely, affordably, and sooner. This premise reflects accelerating trends in technological capabilities which are essential to the proposed mission concept, and increasing public acceptance of the idea that direct physical presence is non-essential to the human experience. These trends favor a technically and financially attainable and politically sustainable human mission to Mars orbit with near-real-time interaction with remotely operated assets on the planet’s surface. The proposed mission concept avoids the cost and schedule associated with development of surface-based crew systems and related transportation capabilities while also side-stepping risks and costs which are inherent in delivering crew, crew-related equipment and supplies to the surface, sustaining them and supporting their exploration operations, and returning the crew and their most important artifacts from the surface of Mars. By reducing the amount of hardware to be delivered to the surface of Mars and maximizing the utility of a limited complement of human-inhabited hardware, the MTPM concept offers considerable potential to reduce the net energy budget for launch, transit to Mars orbit, Mars descent/ascent, and surface operations. These advantages offer significant opportunities to reduce overall cost for development and operations, while also reducing or eliminating dependency on the advancement of various low TRL technologies required to execute a human mission to the Mars surface. The MTPM concept also reduces risk of forward and backward planetary contamination. Remote near-real-time operations of broadly distributed surface rovers, instruments, sample recovery craft, and Mars orbiting assets, would provide a global perspective on Mars far greater than the local perspective attainable through a human mission to the surface. Strategically managing resources and operations throughout the long-duration mission promotes maximum assured knowledge capture, enhancing the capability for more immersive exploration in the future. Leveraging emergent multi-purpose cislunar capabilities in support of MTPM would provide programmatic stability, optimize mutually applicable investments, and offer risk avoidance opportunities affecting systems and operations. This paper expands on these themes and explores systemic architectural and operational implications with the goal of generating support for more in-depth development and analysis of the “Mission to Planet Mars” concept.