Mars human precursor mission concepts for the decade 2010-2020

In the president's vision for space exploration presented in January 2004, a human precursor test bed mission series is identified for both the Moon and Mars. It is assumed that the test bed missions to Mars will satisfy measurement recommendations from the Mars human precursor science steering group (MHP SSG), the Mars exploration program analysis group (MEPAG), and the National Research Council's (NRC) Safe on Mars report. Technology demonstrations and technology feed-forward such as heavy landing, hazard avoidance, pinpoint landing, and in-situ resource utilization (ISRU) must also be accomplished. A number of concepts to complete such tasks have been developed by the pre-projects and Advanced Studies Office at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL). Concepts for orbiters, single stationary or mobile landers, and multiple stationary or mobile landers have been developed. This paper provides an overview of the concepts developed to date to satisfy human precursor measurements and demonstrations.