Revolutionizing Access to the Mars Surface

Abstract

Under the auspices of the Keck Institute for Space Studies at Caltech, we convened a group of Mars scientists and engineers, representing multiple academic institutions, NASA Centers, and commercial companies in March 2021 to address the challenge of revolutionizing access to the Mars surface. Following a 3-month summer study period where working groups addressed specific programmatic, cultural, and engineering challenges, we then convened a second workshop in September 2021. The report that follows represents the product of the discussions. We first outline why Mars—and particularly landed access to Mars—is a priority over the next decades of scientific exploration (Section 1). We then review the challenges to achieving increased numbers of missions accessing the Mars surface (Section 2) as well as near-term trends in the space sector that provide means to overcome these challenges (Section 3). We then describe the intertwined elements of the Frequent, Affordable, Bold (FAB) strategy to achieve access (Section 4). Finally, we discuss the means by which a FAB strategy can be implemented, developing similar sets of science mission types and employing a services model that fosters increasing commercial capabilities over a set of the mission types (Section 5).