Austere Human Missions to Mars
Austere Human Missions to Mars is a concept for a human mission to Mars by the United States space agency, NASA. Released in 2009, it proposed a modified and even less costly version of Design Reference Architecture (DRA) 5.0, itself a combination of nearly 20 years of Mars planning design work. The mission profile was for a conjunction class with a long surface stay, pre-deployed cargo, aerocapture and propulsive capture, and some in-situ resource production. As of 2015, the concept had not yet been adapted to the Space Launch System that replaced NASA's Constellation program in 2011.
Concept for NASA human Mars mission. On the far left an independent ascent stage, on the right a surface stay habitat and crewed/pressurized Mars rover
Ares V
Mars Design Reference Mission
The NASA Mars Design Reference Mission ("DRM") refer to a series of NASA conceptual design studies of the missions to send humans to Mars. The related term, Design Reference Architecture (DRA), refers to the entire sequences of missions and supporting infrastructure.
Artist concept of a Mars habitat, 1993
Concept for NASA Design Reference Mission Architecture 5.0 (2009)
Diagram of some Earth and Mars mission designs
