2023 NASA Moon to Mars Roadmap Bares Potential Lunar Landing Sites, Red Planet Mission Challenges

White papers on potential lunar landing sites and the round-trip challenges of crewed Mars missions are among the updates in the 2023 Moon to Mars Architecture Concept Review that NASA released on Tuesday. 

The roadmap on the solar system exploration for mankind’s benefit contains inputs from U.S. industry, academia and other stakeholders that the agency solicited in April 2023. The 2023 Architecture Concept Review polished approaches to the first crewed Mars missions, including seven critical planning decisions for man’s first journey to the Red Planet, NASA said.

The newly released NASA documents also include a detailed, technical presentation on the agency’s Moon to Mars process framework and white papers on frequently discussed NASA’s exploration subjects.

The agency will continue refining its Moon to Mars architecture each year and solicit further inputs from stakeholders on the concept’s objectives presented to them in early 2023, with follow-up feedback workshops late in the year.  

According to Nujoud Merancy, the NASA Exploration Systems Development Mission Directorate’s deputy associate administrator for strategy and architecture, the agency will focus in the coming months on filling the architecture gaps and reviewing further the decisions NASA needs to make for crewed Mars missions.