NASA Logo

NTRS

NTRS - NASA Technical Reports Server

Collections About News Help Login
Back to Results
Advantages of a Modular Mars Surface Habitat ApproachEarly crewed Mars mission concepts developed by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) assumed a single, large habitat would house six crew members for a 500-day Mars surface stay. At the end of the first mission, all surface equipment-including the habitat-would be abandoned and the process would be repeated at a different Martian landing site. This work was documented in a series of NASA publications culminating with the Mars Design Reference Architecture 5.0. More recent work, dubbed the Evolvable Mars Campaign (EMC), explored whether re-using surface equipment at a single landing site could be more affordable than the Apollo-style explore-abandon-repeat mission cadence. Initial EMC assumptions preserved the single, monolithic habitat-the only difference being a new requirement to reuse the surface habitat for multiple expedition crews. A trade study comparing a single large habitat versus smaller, modular habitats leaned towards the monolithic approach as more mass-efficient. More recent work has focused on the operational aspects of building up Mars surface infrastructure over multiple missions, and has identified compelling advantages of a modular approach that should be considered before making a final decision. This paper explores Mars surface mission operational concepts and integrated system analysis, and presents an argument for the modular habitat approach.
Document ID
20180006797
Acquisition Source
Johnson Space Center
Document Type
Conference Paper
Authors
Rucker, Michelle A. (NASA Johnson Space Center Houston, TX, United States)
Watts, Kevin (NASA Johnson Space Center Houston, TX, United States)
Hoffman, Stephen J. (Aerospace Corp. Houston, TX, United States)
Andrews, Alida (Aerospace Corp. Houston, TX, United States)
Date Acquired
October 24, 2018
Publication Date
September 17, 2018
Subject Category
Lunar And Planetary Science And Exploration
Report/Patent Number
JSC-E-DAA-TN58699
Meeting Information
Meeting: SPACE 2018
Location: Orlando, FL
Country: United States
Start Date: September 17, 2018
End Date: September 19, 2018
Sponsors: American Inst. of Aeronautics and Astronautics
Funding Number(s)
CONTRACT_GRANT: NNJ11HB94C
Distribution Limits
Public
Copyright
Public Use Permitted.

Related Records

IDRelationTitle20180007364See AlsoAdvantages of a Modular Mars Surface Habitat Approach20170005621See AlsoAdvantages of a Modular Mars Surface Habitat Approach
No Preview Available