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Space Studies Board Annual Report 2016 (2017) / Chapter Skim
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6 Congressional Testimony
Pages 62-65

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From page 62...
... To be explicit and to set the scale of the problem, the Technical Panel, aided by independent cost estimation con tractors, and using an innovative process that respected the importance of development risks based on technical challenges, capability gaps, regulatory challenges, and programmatic factors, and the need to retain a reasonable operational tempo, concluded that the first crewed Mars landing might be possible 20-40 years from now, after a cumulative expenditure of on the order of half a trillion dollars (constant FY2013 dollars)
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From page 63...
... Technological Challenges The NRC Technical Panel included a vast pool of experience in virtually all areas of space technology, and members who were deeply involved in earlier efforts going back to the Apollo, Gemini, and Mercury programs, and others involved in helping to define NASA's current technology roadmaps. Few of the technological challenges of a crewed Mars mission are insurmountable, but cumulatively, they represent a huge gap relative to our current capabilities, and our currently available resources.
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From page 64...
... The NRC Committee also noted that two alternative pathways that did not have these deficiencies failed against the af fordability and operational tempo attributes at current expenditure levels. To quote the Technical Panel's final brief ing to the entire NRC Committee in 2013, "In the current fiscal environment, there are no good pathways to Mars." I would like to conclude with some of my own views.
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From page 65...
... . At a minimum, we should agree on a pathway that is satisfying to the public, even if it does not lead to Mars in the foreseeable future.
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Key Terms

  • human physiology
  • deep space
  • technical panel
  • operational tempo
  • human exploration

  • mars mission
  • extreme difficulty
  • space technology
  • mars missions
  • development risk

  • regulatory challenges
  • current expenditure
  • expenditure levels
  • incurring unacceptable
  • public investment

  • ocular damage
  • curiosity robotic
  • current capabilities
  • debilitating effects
  • course expert

  • ensures retention
  • critical technical
  • time interaction
  • extraordinarily challenging
  • existing architectures

  • lining blood
  • panel identified
  • low density
  • risk due
  • ground rules


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