Patrick A. Troutman

The Evolvable Mars Campaign - study status

NASA is developing a long-term strategy for achieving extended human missions to Mars in support of the policies outlined in the 2010 NASA Authorization Act and National Space Policy. The Authorization Act states that “A long term objective for human exploration of space should be the eventual international exploration of Mars.” Echoing this is the National Space Policy, which directs that NASA should, “By 2025, begin crewed missions beyond the moon, including sending humans to an asteroid. By the mid-2030s, send humans to orbit Mars and return them safely to Earth.” Further defining this goal, NASAs 2014 Strategic Plan identifies that “Our long-term goal is to send humans to Mars. Over the next two decades, we will develop and demonstrate the technologies and capabilities needed to send humans to explore the red planet and safely return them to Earth.” To accomplish these goals, NASA is employing a capability-driven approach to its human spaceflight strategy. This approach is based on developing a suite of evolving capabilities that provide specific functions to solve exploration challenges. These capabilities can be leveraged and reused, enabling more complex operations over time and exploration of more distant solar system destinations. The Evolvable Mars Campaign is an ongoing study identifying potential exploration options leading to sustainable human exploration of Mars. This campaign will leverage existing activities, adapt to capability developments, scientific discovery, and ever-changing programmatic environments. The results of this study will not produce “The Plan” for sending humans to Mars, but instead develop potential human Mars exploration strategies to inform NASA management on key decision options and investment priorities. This paper provides a summary of the 2014 study activities and key findings to date.

Pioneering Space Through the Evolvable Mars Campaign

NASA’s Pioneering Space Strategy aims to expand human and robotic presence further into the solar system, not just to explore and visit, but to stay. NASA’s strategy is designed to meet technical and nontechnical challenges, leverage current and near-term activities, and lead to a future where humans can work, learn, operate, and thrive safely in space for an extended, and eventually indefinite, period of time. Enabled by this strategy and collaboration with stakeholders and partners, both commercial, international, and academic, NASA will develop the capabilities necessary to send humans to Mars. To identify potential options to enable pioneering of the solar system, NASA is advancing its study of an Evolvable Mars Campaign looking at pioneering options of sustainable sequences of activities including science missions, technology development, and capability demonstrations to expand human presence across multiple solar system destinations. This paper provides an overview of NASA’s Pioneering Strategy options explored by the Evolvable Mars Campaign and expands on the concept of pioneering as a natural continuation of prior exploration efforts. The paper re-introduces the exploration thresholds of Earth-reliant, the Proving Ground, and Earth-independent; and discusses challenges faced at each. It provides detail on near-term activities, in the Proving Ground of cislunar space and beneficial parallel science missions, which will retire risk and pave the way for deep space human missions that will send humans farther into the solar system than ever before.

Revolutionary Concepts for Human Outer Planet Exploration (HOPE)

This paper summarizes the content of a NASA‐led study performed to identify revolutionary concepts and supporting technologies for Human Outer Planet Exploration (HOPE). Callisto, the fourth of Jupiter’s Galilean moons, was chosen as the destination for the HOPE study. Assumptions for the Callisto mission include a launch year of 2045 or later, a spacecraft capable of transporting humans to and from Callisto in less than five years, and a requirement to support three humans on the surface for a minimum of 30 days. Analyses performed in support of HOPE include identification of precursor science and technology demonstration missions and development of vehicle concepts for transporting crew and supplies. A complete surface architecture was developed to provide the human crew with a power system, a propellant production plant, a surface habitat, and supporting robotic systems. An operational concept was defined that provides a surface layout for these architecture components, a list of surface tasks, a 30‐da...

Shield Optimization in Simple Geometry for the Gateway Concept

The great cost of added radiation shielding is a potential limiting factor in many deep space missions. For this enabling technology, we are developing tools for optimized shield design over multi-segmented missions involving multiple work and living areas in the transport and duty phase of various space missions. The total shield mass over all pieces of equipment and habitats is optimized subject to career dose and dose rate constraints. Preliminary studies of deep space missions indicate that for long duration space missions, improved shield materials will be required. The details of this new method and its impact on space missions and other technologies will be discussed. This study will provide a vital tool for evaluating Gateway designs in their usage context. Providing protection against the hazards of space radiation is one of the challenges to the Gateway infrastructure designs. We will use the mission optimization software to scope the impact of Gateway operations on human exposures and the effectiveness of alternate shielding materials on Gateway infrastructure designs. This study will provide a guide to the effectiveness of multifunctional materials in preparation to more detailed geometry studies in progress.

Surface buildup scenarios and outpost architectures for Lunar Exploration

The Constellation Program Architecture Team and the Lunar Surface Systems Project Office have developed an initial set of lunar surface buildup scenarios and associated polar outpost architectures, along with preliminary supporting element and system designs in support of NASAs Exploration Strategy. The surface scenarios are structured in such a way that outpost assembly can be suspended at any time to accommodate delivery contingencies or changes in mission emphasis. The modular nature of the architectures mitigates the impact of the loss of any one element and enhances the ability of international and commercial partners to contribute elements and systems. Additionally, the core lunar surface system technologies and outpost operations concepts are applicable to future Mars exploration. These buildup scenarios provide a point of departure for future trades and assessments of alternative architectures and surface elements.