The major components of the architecture will be launched separately. Some are pre-positioned in Mars orbit ahead of time. Others are assembled in cis-lunar space for the journey to Mars. Six astronauts will launch on Orion, which serves as the heart of the Mars Base Camp interplanetary ship.

What is the mission timeline?

This notional timeline lays out the major stepping stone missions that will refine and test the technology to make Mars Base Camp possible.

Since the first Viking lander touched down on Mars 40 years ago, humanity has been fascinated with the Red Planet. Lockheed Martin built NASA's first Mars lander and has been a part of every NASA Mars mission since. We're ready to deliver the future, faster.

The Mars Base Camp concept builds upon existing deep space technologies in development today and provides a blueprint for NASA's journey to Mars. This plan provides the opportunity for significant scientific discovery, can be evolved to accommodate specific mission objectives, and ensures the safety of our astronauts.

The aerospace company Lockheed Martin recently proposed that NASA work with its international partners and private industry to set up a space station in Mars orbit by 2028. The astronauts working and living aboard this "Mars Base Camp" could help collect information that any future Red Planet explorer would need to know, the project's developers say.

"Before we send people to the surface of Mars, we owe it to that crew, to ourselves, to understand if there's life on the planet and if there's anything that's toxic to humans," said Steve Bailey, the president and chief engineer of the Colorado-based company Deep Space Systems Inc. "This mission will do those two very fundamental things."

Bailey and Steve Jolly, chief engineer for civil space at Lockheed Martin, discussed the Mars Base Camp idea July 27 during a presentation with NASA's Future In-Space Operations (FISO) working group.

At no other time in history have we had the technology, the know-how, and the public enthusiasm to get humans to Mars. Orion is NASA's spaceship that will take humans into deep space, but it needs to be a part of a larger system to go to Mars. Lockheed Martin's concept is called Mars Base Camp and it's our idea of how to send humanity's first crewed mission to Mars in about a decade.

The Mars Base Camp orbiting outpost could give scientists/astronauts the ability to operate rovers and drones on the surface in real time – helping us better understand the Red Planet and answer fundamental questions: Where did we come from? Where are we going? Are we alone?

As valuable as orbiting missions are for science and exploration, we’ll eventually look to leave the base camp and descend to the surface.

The Mars Base Cape surface lander concept is a reusable, single-stage lander capable of descending to the surface from Mars orbit using supersonic retropropulsion. Each surface mission could last two weeks with up to four astronauts, and return to the orbiting Mars Base Camp without surface refueling or leaving assets behind.

The lander uses Orion avionics and systems as its command deck and is powered by engines using liquid-hydrogen/liquid-oxygen propellant, both of which will be generated from water.