Technical Paper
Mars Mission Design Evaluation Criteria
1996-07-01
961467
The ultimate goal of human space exploration is to discover if life exists on other worlds, to understand the genesis and evolution of the universe and to learn to live on other planets. Mars offers the closest opportunity to pursue these goals realistically. The capabilities to define, design, develop, build, test, contract out, manufacture and operate new technologies are the means to achieve this set of goals. The purpose of this set of criteria is to evaluate mission design and exploration technology proposals to ensure that the means support the goals and do no obstruct them. This paper presents a comprehensive approach to evaluating complete Mars mission designs and partial designs. It begins from current theory and methodology of design problem definition. It proposes a method of evaluating if the mission design solution answers the problem definition.