An All-Up Test for Human Mars Hardware: Risk Reduction and Opportunity for Asset Deployment

David Hewitt
Huntsvile Alabama L5 Society, Huntsville Alabama

Abstract

When considering the various ideas for a future human mission to Mars, there seems to be a consensus on the basics in architecture such as landers, return vehicles, and habitats; however, there is still much debate about how to utilize the explorer's capabilities once they arrive. One idea that has emerged would allow the visitors to maximize the scientific return of their stay on the Red Planet by augmenting their capabilities with real time robotic assets deployed in places they cannot visit. Communication and navigation limitations due to uneven global magnetic field and ionosphere make this difficult without aid of satellites. An opportunity exists to conduct an all---up test, before any human ventures to Mars, of the propulsion and guidance systems that would presumably be developed for a crewed mission. Instead of a payload tailored to support the crew on the journey, this test flight could use that same capability to carry flight instrumentation and a module filled with spacecraft to be deployed in Martian orbit. This would allow a constellation of GPS and communication satellites to be on---station, and perhaps some landers on the surface before a crew would arrive. The benefits to such an infrastructure to human exploration are numerous, and the engineering data returned from the early test flight would no doubt aid in reducing the risks for the first crewed mission.

Presented at ISDC 2011 - Huntsville. Paper and presentation charts are not available.