Overview of NASA's 2006 SSE Strategic Roadmap

In the 2003 solar system exploration (SSE) decadal survey, the national research council (NRC) prioritized scientific targets and recommended missions to explore them. Taking these into account, NASA's 2006 solar system exploration (SSE) strategic roadmap (SRM) identified a set of large flagship, medium new frontiers (NF) and small discovery class missions, addressing key exploration objectives. Discovery and NF missions are competed, and due to their lower cost caps, address fewer science objectives than the large missions, while mostly utilizing existing technologies. Directed flagship class missions are considered necessary to answer some of the most important questions on solar system formation and habitability. They also provide drivers for technology development, which in turn would benefit all mission classes. Additionally, this SSE SRM offers a comprehensive discussion on science objectives for solar system exploration, and technologies enabling these missions. It outlines research and analysis (R&A), which is required to maintain the proposed program, and to post process scientific data. Education and public outreach (E/PO) communicates NASA's activities to the public of all ages, and as discussed, is considered an important part of the agency's programs. These elements are connected through interdependencies and links to other programmatic activities, including the mars and new millennium programs. The roadmap also explores potential implementation trades, suggesting multiple ways to execute a balanced program that consist of all mission classes and supported by technology development, R&A, and E/PO, while staying within a projected budget allocation for SSE. In this paper we outline this proposed SSE strategic roadmap, representing NASA's exploration plans for the next three decades.