By 
April 8th, 2017
Credit: Bob Sauls – XP4D/Explore Mars, Inc. (used with permission)
A new report — The Fourth Community Workshop on Achievability and Sustainability of Human Exploration of Mars (AM IV) – is now available.
The report is a product from a December 6-8, 2016 meeting organized by Explore Mars, Inc. and the American Astronautical Society.
Nine “long poles” were assessed in depth before and during the workshop and all were found to be achievable. That is, with sustained and focused investment, they all would be available for deployment within about fifteen years or less.
Been there, done that
Sustainability was judged to be one of those long poles, a critical capability, because it is an essential attribute of Mars exploration that is both enabled by and results in value to the nation.
Early pioneering of Mars is expected to provide a gateway for developing the means to sustain a colony of people.
Credit: NASA/Pat Rawlings
The report explains:
“Sustainability will enable Mars exploration to continue after the first several human missions unlike Apollo, which was never designed to be sustainable. It will defeat the “been there, done that” cliché that pervades modern culture and is a threat to sustained Mars exploration and its value to the nation.”
“Sustainability must be deliberately built in to the enterprise design. It will not just happen. It is often confused with affordability. If the enterprise were affordable surely it would be sustainable. Not so. An enterprise that is sustainable is by definition affordable but an enterprise that is affordable is not by definition sustainable.”
This informative report is available at:
https://www.exploremars.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/AM-IV-Report-FINAL_2.pdf
Posted in Space News
