At the beginning of the 21st century, our nation stands at a unique time in the history of exploration and
discovery. Over the past decade, new evidence of resources on the moon, ancient water on Mars, oceans under the surface of the moons of Jupiter and planets around other stars indicates that our universe is much more habitable than previously thought.


Our generation has the opportunity to answer profound questions asked since ancient times about where we come from, whether life exists elsewhere and how we could live beyond Earth. Answering these questions will require new technologies, capabilities, partnerships and innovations, all of which benefit our lives on Earth. Breakthroughs will be needed in many technical areas, including communications, computation, materials, networking, power, propulsion and robotics. The challenges of space exploration will drive revolutionary capabilities in fields such as nanotechnology, biotechnology and information technology. Partnerships between NASA’s human and robotic programs, and with other federal agencies, foreign space agencies and industry and academia will all be key. New ideas, often from unexpected sources, will also play a pivotal role.

In January 2004, President Bush visited NASA Headquarters and announced the Vision for Space Exploration. The vision is a long-term strategy for increasing our knowledge of, and presence in, our solar system and worlds beyond. Instead of setting a single, fixed goal and relying on large budget increases, the vision establishes a series of goals with the schedule flexibility necessary to sustain a long-term program of space exploration. Shortly after Bush’s speech, NASA Administrator Sean O’Keefe created the Exploration Systems Mission Directorate, a new NASA Mission Directorate, at NASA Headquarters. Retired Navy Rear Adm. Craig Steidle, former manager of the Department of Defense’s Joint Strike Fighter Program, leads the office. The office is charged with developing the technologies, systems, vehicles and other capabilities needed to carry out the Vision for Space Exploration. This article describes the major programs and managerial approach of the Exploration Systems Mission Directorate, the potential future benefits of these programs and the office’s relationships with other NASA organizations.

Constellation Systems: Enabling Exploration
Named after the patterns that stars form in the night sky, Constellation Systems is responsible for developing the crew exploration vehicle (CEV) and related exploration architecture systems. Like the Apollo command module, the CEV represents one building block in a future exploration architecture that can send astronauts to the moon and form the basis for exploration missions to other
destinations. The Vision for Space Exploration sets goals of developing, by 2014, a new CEV that is capable of carrying astronauts beyond low Earth orbit, and landing astronauts on the moon no later than 2020.Constellation Systems employs a spiral approach to requirements definition and system development. Instead of fixing final requirements based on limited knowledge today, Constellation Systems will be developed in stages, during which requirements for the next stage of development are refined using inputs from flight testing and other knowledge gained during the current stage of development and testing. The first boilerplate flight tests of the CEV are scheduled for 2008. They will be followed by more capable, uncrewed flight tests in 2011, leading to the operational, crewed capability in 2014. The Exploration Systems Mission Directorate employs a requirements division that works in concert with its development division on this iterative process of development,
testing and requirements refinement.

As early as 2015 the CEV will be integrated with other exploration systems in a lunar architecture. Constellation Systems employs a system-of-systems approach to exploration architecture planning
and development. It seeks to understand the implications of various systems trades on the total architecture, both for current and future applications. Other architecture elements may include communications platforms, lift capability, transfer stages, assembly capability, landers, habitation, life support, surface mobility and science instruments. Ultimately, this lunar architecture will serve as the first spiral in the development of future exploration architectures that can enable more expansive lunar
operations, deploy and service very large space observatories and mount research expeditions to Mars.

The Exploration Systems Mission Directorate places a high value on finding and leveraging the best ideas, wherever they may be found in our nation. More than 1,000 inputs from NASA centers, industry, academia and other interested organizations and individuals have been received in response to a Constellation Systems request for information. These inputs will help form the basis for a broad agency announcement on Constellation Systems concept refinement that will be released in the summer of 2004. A request for proposal on Constellation Systems’ technology development is planned for release next year. Subsequent downselects will lead to a CEV fly-off in 2008. The final downselect for the CEV will consider the technical merits of the CEV proposals and flight tests, technology development and risk reduction for Constellation Systems’ first lunar architecture, and concept work on future exploration architectures.

Technology Research and Development
The Vision for Space Exploration places a high value on sustainable approaches to space exploration
and research. Unlike major human space exploration efforts of the past, the vision seeks to establish a long-term series of robotic and human exploratory activities that gradually grow in both distance and capability without requiring large spikes in resources and funding. The major components within the technology research and development area are human and robotic technology
and Prometheus.

Human and Robotic Technology: Transforming Exploration
Human and robotic technology (HRT) is responsible for identifying and maturing the technologies that can transform future space systems and exploration architectures and make them more sustainable. HRT technologies, subsystems and demonstrations form the basis for developing future vehicles and systems in Constellation Systems architectures, including the CEV.

HRT consolidates and aligns previous NASA technology program areas, including mission and science measurement and innovative technology transfer, and augments them with a dedicated technology maturation program to ensure that promising technologies make their way into operational flight system development. Examples of high-priority investment areas, from an initial mapping of technology program areas to exploration, need to include integrated vehicle health management, in-flight refueling and in-space assembly. These and other HRT investments will be made to improve system reusability, reliability and effectiveness, all of which contribute to the strategy of sustainable exploration. Investments now in such technologies will help to ensure their availability when they are needed for future spirals and more-complex operations.

HRT seeks innovation widely and employs competitive approaches to find the best ideas. The Office
of Exploration Systems will solicit responses to intramural and extramural calls for proposals, which will be awarded later this year. A follow-up award, to be presented next year, will address specific technology gaps for the CEV. Centennial Challenges, a program of prize competitions that augments HRT and other NASA programs, will reward specific accomplishments that advance solar system exploration and tap ingenuity wherever it may be found in our nation.


Project Prometheus: Powering Exploration
The nation’s Vision for Space Exploration lays out a multi-decade road map for gradually more capable and expansive space activities, including long-term stays on the lunar surface to test exploration systems and leverage lunar resources, more-extensive robotic missions to search for life on Jupiter’s moons and explore the outer solar system, and astronaut expeditions to Mars to understand that planet’s potential for life. High-energy, deep-space power — fueled by nuclear-fission technology — is critical to successfully complete these activities. Project Prometheus, named after the mythological Greek titan who gave humanity the gift of fire, is responsible for developing the nuclear-fission power and propulsion systems necessary to enable these applications.

The first major application of Prometheus technology is on the Jupiter Icy Moons Orbiter (JIMO) mission, scheduled for launch around the middle of the next decade NASA’s Office of Space Science
is responsible for JIMO science instruments and research, while NASA’s Exploration Systems Mission Directorate provides the underlying power, propulsion and spacecraft systems necessary to support
these instruments.

Following up on tantalizing evidence uncovered by the Galileo mission of oceans deep under the
icy surfaces of three of Jupiter’s moons — Europa, Callisto and Ganymede — JIMO will be unlike any previous planetary science mission. Rich in power and propulsive capability, JIMO can orbit each moon for up to a year, probing subterranean oceans with new, powerful instruments and potentially placing small landers on the surface of one or more of these worlds. At the end of JIMO’s tour, scientists will have complete maps of three new oceans on three worlds, each a potential abode of life, and the geophysical and chemical information to know how best to search for life on these moons.

The investment required to develop any nuclear system is substantial, and the Exploration Systems Mission Directorate is seeking ways to best align and leverage investment in the JIMO nuclear power source toward follow-on applications. JIMO power and propulsion systems will be applicable to other robotic missions to our outer solar system, such as spacecraft to Saturn’s moon Titan, Neptune’s moon Triton and the Kuiper Belt. Depending on what systems and resources are ultimately tested and mined at the Earth’s moon, JIMO’s power system may be adapted with relatively few modifications to serve as a lunar- surface power source. With certain modifications to accommodate the Martian atmosphere, JIMO’s power source may play a similar role on the surface of Mars for both robotic and human systems. Eventually, larger-scale nuclear power and propulsion systems will likely provide the means by which human expeditions are safely sent beyond the Earth-moon system to the asteroids, Mars and other destinations.

The Exploration Systems Mission Directorate recently released a request for proposal (RFP) for the JIMO mission. To help ensure that the JIMO power source is useful beyond the JIMO mission itself, the JIMO RFP specifies other robotic and human mission applications. With the development of any nuclear system, safety is paramount. NASA will work with the Department of Energy’s Office of Naval Reactors to assist with Prometheus development. With a perfect safety record, the Office of Naval Reactors will provide key inputs on Prometheus design and operations.

Planetary and Astrophysical Research: Partnering Exploration and Discovery
Products from the Exploration Systems Mission Directorate provide key enabling and enhancing capabilities for Office of Space Science research. One example is nuclear-fission power, a capability provided by the Exploration Systems Mission Directorate to enable JIMO, a mission of the Office of Space Science. Another example is in-space assembly, an Exploration Systems Mission Directorate capability that will likely prove critical to the deployment and maintenance of future, large-space observatories. These observatories will allow scientists to understand the worlds of our solar system in the context of other solar systems and to search worlds around other stars for evidence of life. In the near term, the Office of Space Science and the Exploration Systems Mission Directorate are working together to understand common areas of interest in space rendezvous and robotic servicing that could lengthen the operational life of the Hubble Space Telescope and benefit future exploration architectures.

In other programs, Office of Space Science missions will support the Exploration Systems Mission Directorate by providing important planetary data and technology demonstrations. The Lunar Exploration Program consists of a series of robotic missions managed by the Office of Space Science to serve as precursors to future human exploration missions. The first of these missions, a 2008 lunar orbiter, will help confirm or disprove the existence of specific lunar resources, which may have profound implications for how the first Constellation Systems architecture develops. Similarly, a new line of robotic missions in the Mars Exploration Program will provide critical information about Mars hazards
and resources, and demonstrate technologies that will provide key inputs into Exploration Systems Mission Directorate architecture trades, requirements development and systems investments. The first launch of these robotic missions to Mars is planned for 2011.


Did you know
An interesting fact to stimulate the mind

Who named the famous mission to the moon, "Apollo"?

Dr. Abe Silverstein.

In early 1960, Silverstein named the manned journey to the moon "Apollo" after one of the most versatile of the Greek gods. The name was chosen after Silverstein was perusing a book of mythology. He thought the image of Apollo riding his chariot across the sun was appropriate to the grand scale of the proposed program.



Bioastronautical Research: Discovery Supporting Exploration

Research on the effects of the space environment on the human body, along with the development of appropriate radiation and microgravity countermeasures, is key to the design of future exploration vehicles and architectures. Similarly, life-support systems, remote medical systems and other technologies necessary to support human crews with a minimum of supplies and intervention from Earth, are also important to enabling sustainable exploration. The international space station and space shuttle are on the critical path to conducting this research and developing these human-support systems.

Historically, research in these areas yields substantial benefits for medical and other applications on Earth. Spin-off technologies have included improved cancer-detection instruments, new cancer treatments, new cardiovascular implants, improved breathing apparatuses, cordless power tools, fire-detection sensors and improved water purification.

Audentes Fortuna Juvat — Fortune Favors the Bold
The Vision for Space Exploration lays out a bold yet responsible plan for exploring our solar system, its potential for life and worlds beyond. By aligning investments, defining programmatic approaches, establishing procurement strategies and partnering with other NASA organizations, NASA’s Exploration Systems Mission Directorate has taken the first steps to fulfilling the vision. Much work lies ahead, but the great discoveries and practical benefits to come will be very rewarding.

For more information regarding the Vision for Space Exploration, please visit www.nasa.gov or contact the Exploration Systems Mission Directorate.

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