A Mars-back approach to lunar surface operations

Abstract

The Vision for Space Exploration initiated a new space exploration program and called for a long term national commitment to space exploration starting with a return to the Moon and continuing with the exploration of Mars and beyond. The development and operation of the new space exploration system needs to occur within the confines of NASA's current funding. This funding restriction prevents the development of separate space exploration systems for both the Moon and Mars. Therefore, in order to explore both locations, it is necessary to adopt a "Mars-back" approach to lunar exploration, wherein a Martian system is designed and then applied to the Moon. The lunar missions will not require the entire suite of hardware that will be needed on Mars. This thesis describes the reasoning behind using a Mars-back approach and its application to surface operations, using a baseline surface architecture consisting of 5 crew staying on the surface of Mars for 600 days. The surface mobility system will consist of 5 all-terrain vehicles and two towable pressurized volumes, termed campers. The power and habitation requirements are discussed. The Martian surface architecture is then applied to the Moon, where the performance of the same equipment on the lunar surface is evaluated. A campaign of lunar missions is designed to take advantage of the staged development of equipment for the exploration system. While the entire suite of equipment will be needed on Mars, the lunar missions can accomplish useful work and perform real exploration using only a subset of the equipment, such as only the mobility equipment and not the habitat. The main goal of the lunar missions is to prepare for Martian exploration.

(cont.) The progress of the lunar missions towards accomplishing this goal is measured using the Mars Exploration Readiness Level (MERL).