posted 04-04-2015 11:50 AM               

"If propellant was available from the moon, this could dramatically lower the mass needed from the Earth for a NASA Mars mission," Gerstenmaier said.

NASA officials have begun talking about an "Evolvable Mars Campaign," which recognizes the technical and financial challenges of reaching Mars, and the likelihood that the United States would not support an all-out, Apollo-like plan.

...with this "evolvable" campaign, which should be publicly released later this year, NASA is moving away from a flags-and-footprints approach used during the Apollo era to a more step-by-step, sustainable path. NASA is considering how to launch assets into space that could be built upon by subsequent missions, and ways of using resources in space that would reduce the burden of launching them from Earth.

posted 04-04-2015 02:56 PM               

Constellation proposed building a base for a long-term stay on the moon with no defined activities on the surface and no specific plan for how such a base would lead to Mars.

Based on the little I've heard of the current talks, it may not be necessary or desired to establish a base on the moon. Rather, if the focus is still Mars, then it may make more sense to establish an outpost at L2 and fly (crewed or robotic) sortie missions to the lunar surface as needed for in situ resource utilization.

posted 04-06-2015 09:23 AM               

NASA spokeswoman Stephanie Schierholz told SpacePolicyOnline.com via email that Gerstenmaier was only responding to a question from Berger about the possibility of using lunar resources for Mars missions. "The Evolvable Mars Campaign, which envisions using the lunar vicinity to support a human mission to the Red Planet, is in line with and designed to advance the president's ambitious space exploration plan. We're making great progress on this journey to Mars. A key element of our plan to get to the Red Planet is employing a stepping stone approach, including living, working and learning in cis-lunar space."

Cis-lunar is the area between the Earth and the Moon or in lunar orbit.

...David Weaver, NASA Associate Administrator for the Office of Communications, and Berger engaged in a Twitter exchange about the article as well. Weaver said there was "nothing new" about NASA's plan to use the Moon, but it involves operations in cis-lunar space, not on the surface. Berger replied "Respectfully disagree; ISRU idea is new and would require a substantial investment of time and money at the Moon."

posted 04-06-2015 04:58 PM               

A company called Tethers Unlimited is developing an in-space manufacturing system called "SpiderFab," which would use arachnidlike robots to put together large objects in orbit or beyond.

SpiderFab could help build big radio antennas, spacecraft booms and solar arrays in the next decade or so, said Rob Hoyt, CEO and chief scientist of Tethers Unlimited. But he has an even grander vision for the technology (and associated projects the company is working on) over the long haul.

"Our really long-term objective for all of this work is to eventually enable the use of in-situ resources to construct the infrastructure in space needed to support humanity's expansion throughout the solar system," Hoyt said March 4 during a presentation with NASA's Future In-Space Operations (FISO) working group.

posted 04-07-2015 09:27 PM               

I don't know what you expect to happen in the next couple of years, but let me quote Walt Cunningham from his recent congressional testimony:

Unless the country, which really is Congress here, decides to put more money in it, this is just talk that we're going through here. The budget has got to go up for NASA.

posted 04-08-2015 02:43 PM               

Evolvable Mars Campaign (EMC)

EMC Goal: Define a pioneering strategy and operational capabilities that can extend and sustain human presence in the solar system including a human journey to explore the Mars system starting in the mid-2030s.

Identify a plan that:

• Expands human presence into the solar system to advance exploration, science, innovation, benefits to humanity and international collaboration

• Provides different future scenario options for a range of capability needs to be used as guidelines for near term activities and investments
  • In accordance with key strategic principles
    
  • Takes advantage of capability advancements
    
  • Leverages new scientific findings
    
  • Flexible to policy changes
  
  
• Identifies linkages to and leverages current investments in ISS, SLS, Orion, ARM, EAM, technology development investments, science activities

• Emphasizes prepositioning and reuse/repurposing of systems when it makes sense
  • Use location(s) in cis-lunar space for aggregation and refurbishment of systems

posted 04-08-2015 02:49 PM               

I don't think we need to go to the surface of the Moon if long-term goal is Mars.

No emphasis in our plans for humans landing on the Moon, but looking at ISRU uses of lunar resources.

posted 04-08-2015 06:03 PM               

We have seen and done several studies that look at Mars missions as a logistics and resupply problem. These studies show that resources from the moon could be extremely beneficial for Mars missions.

posted 04-08-2015 06:15 PM               

As mentioned up thread, ISRU could be accomplished from cis-lunar space, sending down robotic missions to mine the resources that you've already mapped using robotic orbiters.

Sending humans to the surface is a good idea if your goal is to settle on the moon, but if your focus is on Mars, then the benefits of astronauts on the surface become less apparent.