NASA workshop on concepts and approaches for Mars exploration

The NASA Administrator has directed the Associate Administrator for the Science Mission Directorate (AA/SMD) to lead a reformulation of the Mars Exploration Program, working with the Associate Administrator for the Human Exploration and Operations Directorate (AA/HEOMD), the Office of the Chief Technologist (OCT), and the Office of the Chief Scientist (OCS). In support of this reformulation, NASA will assess near-term mission concepts and longer-term foundations of program-level architectures for future robotic exploration of Mars in sufficient detail for SMD to develop and select high pay-off mission(s) beginning with the 2018 launch opportunity. The resulting missions and architecture will be responsive to the scientific goals articulated by the National Research Council Planetary Decadal Survey (Visions and Voyages, 2012, NRC Press) and to the President’s challenge of sending humans to orbit Mars in the decade of the 2030s.