NASA planning for exploration mission 2 (EM-2) and accomplishing exploration objectives in the proving ground

NASA is leading a journey to Mars, expanding human presence further into the solar system, not just to explore, but to stay. Achieving sustained human presence in deep space requires development of systems that will overcome numerous challenges and a flexible strategy allowing for change and improvement as our science and technology advances in ways that we cannot predict today. NASA is actively developing capabilities that will enable humans to thrive beyond Earth for extended periods of time in a sustainable capacity in space and ultimately on the surface of Mars. Investments in initial capabilities will be leveraged and reused on the journey to Mars, enabling increasingly complex operations over time and exploration of more distant solar system destinations. The overall strategy is to provide a adaptable, incremental approach; identifying technologies and capabilities needing development and testing in the near-term during near-Earth operations before readiness to take the first humans to Mars and other deep-space destinations. This paper will discuss the refinement of Proving Ground Objectives as outlined in NASA's Journey to Mars (J2M) document and how these objectives are mapped to early missions, Exploration Mission - 1 (EM-1) and EM-2. The plans for EM-1 and EM-2 will be discussed in detail and shown how these missions satisfy parts of the Proving Ground Objectives and thereby demonstrate tangible, meaningful progress towards NASA's exploration goals. Further, the paper will discuss the near-term cislunar space mission plans and highlight the status of capabilities in development by NASA under the Space Launch System (SLS), Orion Multi-purpose Crew Vehicle and the Ground Systems Development and Operational (GSDO) programs. Finally, the paper will review the ability of the exploration architecture provides to support exploration payloads ranging from small cubesat class experiments to large, multi-ton co-manifested payloads, including opportunities for commercial and international.