Extreme EXPeditionary Architecture

Abstract

In his time, Roald Amundsen was first and foremost remembered as a master of planning and executing the classic polar expedition. Although Amundsen’s expeditions were undertaken almost a century ago, Exploration Class missions to Mars and beyond will more closely resemble sea voyages undertaken by explorers such as Amundsen than the mission architectures used for the Space Shuttle and International Space Station (ISS). The first voyagers to Mars will spend up to six months getting there, almost two years exploring the surface and up to six months on the return journey. To maximize their two-year stay on the surface it will be necessary for Mars crews to adopt the strategies employed by Amundsen and his fellow polar explorers, the most important of which will be mobility. In common with early polar exploration expeditions, the key to accomplishing the many scientific and exploration objectives on the Martian surface will lie in adaptable and mobile exploration architecture. Such an architecture, known as Extreme EXPedi- tionary Architecture (EXP-Arch), was conceived and developed by a small team of designers, engineers and scientists working for the NASA Institute for Advanced Concepts (NIAC).

“I may say that this is the greatest factor — the way in which the expedition is equipped — the way in which every difficulty foreseen, and precautions taken for meeting and avoiding it. Victory awaits him who has everything in order— luck, people call it. Defeat is certain for him who has neglected to take the necessary precautions in time; this is called bad luck.” From The South Pole, by Roald Amundsen (1872–1928), legendary Norwegian Polar explorer, who led the first Antarctic expedition to reach the South Pole on 14th December, 1911.