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Mars Society Mission
Part of American Mars Expeditions

Mars Society Mission

Mars Society Mission
Credit: Mars Society

American manned Mars expedition. Study 1999. In 1999 the Mars Society, noting certain defects in NASA's Design Reference Mission, requested California Institute of Technology to develop an alternative scenario to meet these concerns.

AKA: Caltech. Status: Study 1999.

Crew was reduced from six to five. The mission design featured increased commonality to reduce the number of new spacecraft to be developed; redundancy to improve mission safety; a heavy-lift launch vehicle family based on newer Delta-IV technology; improved trajectories; no more than one earth-orbit rendezvous; and no nuclear rocket development (although nuclear power on the Martian surface was still proposed).

In 1999 the Mars Society, noting certain defects in NASA's Design Reference Mission, requested California Institute of Technology to develop an alternative scenario to meet these concerns. Crew was reduced from six to five. The mission design featured increased commonality to reduce the number of new spacecraft to be developed; redundancy to improve mission safety; a heavy-lift launch vehicle family based on newer Delta-IV technology; improved trajectories; no more than one earth-orbit rendezvous; and no nuclear rocket development (although nuclear power on the Martian surface was still proposed). The Mars Society Mission featured:

The mission profile was as follows:

As in NASA scenarios, the build-up and resupply of the base then continues. The lower crew size and improved mission scenario allowed the MSM component masses to be reduced by 10% from NASA's DRM 3.0:

Mars Society Mission Summary:

Crew Size: 5.



Family: Mars Expeditions. Country: USA. Agency: Mars Society.

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