Mars Design Reference Mission


The NASA Mars Design Reference Mission refer to a series of NASA conceptual design studies of the missions to send humans to Mars. The related term, Design Reference Architecture, refers to the entire sequences of missions and supporting infrastructure.
These are a reference baseline studies summarizing the current technology and possible approaches for a human mission to Mars, and are not actual mission program. According to NASA, the documents "represent a 'snapshot' of work in progress in support of planning for future human exploration of the Martian surface." The design reference missions are used for technology trade studies, to analyze the effect of different approaches to the mission.

Approach and results

  • Limit the time that the crew is exposed to the harsh space environment by employing fast transits to and from Mars and abort to the surface strategy
  • Utilize local resources to reduce mission mass
  • Use split-mission strategy to pre-deploy mission hardware to reduce mass and minimize risk to the crew
  • Examine three human missions to Mars beginning in 2009
  • Utilize advanced space propulsion for in-space transportation
  • Payloads sent directly to Mars using a large launch vehicle
  • Nuclear surface power for robust continuous power
The conclusions of the study were that the total mission mass was approximately 900 metric tons for the first crew. The study pointed out that development of the large launch vehicle is a long-lead and expensive system, and approaches using smaller launch vehicles should be investigated.

Principal results

Principal results of the study were
  • Incorporation of a round-trip crew transfer vehicle reduces system reliability requirement from five to three years, but requires an additional rendezvous in Mars orbit
  • End-to-end solar electric propulsion vehicle mission concept is shown to be a viable concept, but vehicle packaging and size remain tall-poles
  • Total mission mass estimates:
  • * Solar electric propulsion: 467 tonnes
  • * Nuclear thermal propulsion: 436 tonnes
  • * Chemical with aerobraking: 657 tonnes