AAS 97-617
RECENT EVOLUTION OF THE MARS REFERENCE MISSION
B.K. Joosten - NASA Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center, S.J. Hoffman - Science Applications International Corporation
Abstract
During 1992-1994 work was done by personnel representing several NASA field centers to formulate a "Reference Mission" addressing human exploration of Mars. This Reference Mission describes an approach for the first human missions to Mars, utilizing approaches that are technically feasible, have reasonable risks, and have relatively low costs. The Reference Mission appears to have achieved better technical feasibility, risk, and cost than previous approaches. But even with these advancements, improvement was still needed in all of these areas to make the first piloted Mars mission a feasible undertaking for the spacefaring nations of Earth. NASA has recently completed a re-examination, a "scrub", of the Reference Mission in light of technology advances since the time of the original study and to refine vehicle and system concepts to help reduce mass and associated costs. This paper briefly recaps the Reference Mission as originally developed to set the stage for work recently comp