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Human Mars Mission Design - The Ultimate Systems ChallengeA human mission to Mars will occur at some time in the coming decades. When it does, it will be the end result of a complex network of interconnected design choices, systems analyses, technical optimizations, and non-technical compromises. This mission will extend the technologies, engineering design, and systems analyses to new limits, and may very well be the most complex undertaking in human history. It can be illustrated as a large menu, or as a large decision tree. Whatever the visualization tool, there are numerous design decisions required to assemble a human Mars mission, and many of these interconnect with one another. This paper examines these many decisions and further details a number of choices that are highly interwoven throughout the mission design. The large quantity of variables and their interconnectedness results in a highly complex systems challenge, and the paper illustrates how a change in one variable results in ripples (sometimes unintended) throughout many other facets of the design. The paper concludes with a discussion of some mission design variables that can be addressed first, and those that have already been addressed as a result of ongoing National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) developments, or as a result of decisions outside the technical arena. It advocates the need for a 'reference design' that can be used as a point of comparison, and to illustrate the system-wide impacts as design variables change.
Document ID
20170008879
Acquisition Source
Johnson Space Center
Document Type
Conference Paper
Authors
Connolly, John F. (NASA Johnson Space Center Houston, TX, United States)
Joosten, B. Kent (Booz-Allen and Hamilton, Inc. Houston, TX, United States)
Drake, Bret (Aerospace Corp. El Segundo, CA, United States)
Hoffman, Steve (Aerospace Corp. El Segundo, CA, United States)
Polsgrove, Tara (NASA Marshall Space Flight Center Huntsville, AL, United States)
Rucker, Michelle (NASA Johnson Space Center Houston, TX, United States)
Andrews, Alida (Aerospace Corp. El Segundo, CA, United States)
Williams, Nehemiah (NASA Johnson Space Center Houston, TX, United States)
Date Acquired
September 19, 2017
Publication Date
September 25, 2017
Subject Category
Systems Analysis And Operations Research
Lunar And Planetary Science And Exploration
Report/Patent Number
JSC-CN-40444
Meeting Information
Meeting: International Astronautical Congress (IAC)
Location: Adelaide
Country: Australia
Start Date: September 25, 2017
End Date: September 29, 2017
Sponsors: International Astronautical Federation
Distribution Limits
Public
Copyright
Public Use Permitted.

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