Abstract
Our Moon is visible in the night sky and at times during daylight hours. Features stand out prominent with and without telescopes. At times our Moon seems closer to Earth, and any memories of Moon landings only solidify our belief that the Moon is always in reach, that it can prepare us for humanity’s next giant leap into our solar system. Experts continue to imagine, study, and conceptualize various campaign strategies for using the Moon to feed forward to other destinations such as Mars. Some strategies involve humans from the start to set up the initial base camp, to humans going after the settlement is found safe and ready for initial crews to live there. Perhaps the most provocative scenario stems from using the Moon as a robot factory for creating the systems that will autonomously construct new settlements throughout the solar system that humans can eventually occupy. This chapter sets the stage for subsequent chapters in this section, all aimed at increasing our understanding of how to take even longer giant leaps.
Robert Moses is Retired.
References
Arney DC, Jones CA, Klovstad JJ, Komar DR, Earle K, Moses R, Shyface HR (2015) Sustaining human presence on Mars using ISRU and a reusable Lander. In: AIAA Space 2015; 31 August–2 September 2015, Pasadena
David L (2016a) Sustainable colonization of mars: using a resource-rich red planet, April 27, 2016. https://www.leonarddavid.com/sustainable-colonization-of-mars-using-a-resource-rich-red-planet/
David L (2016b) Mars colonists must ‘Live Off the Land’: NASA Report, July 27, 2016. https://www.space.com/33563-nasa-mars-colonization-plan.html
Explore Mars Inc. (2017) Affording Mars Workshop V, “The fifth community workshop on achievability and sustainability of human exploration of Mars: three scenarios for the 2030s (AM V),” 5–7 December 2017. Washington Plaza Hotel, Washington, DC. https://www.exploremars.org//wp-content/uploads/2019/12/AM-V-Report_Design_v3.pdf
Heldmann J, Marinova M, Lim D, Wilson D, Carrato, P, Kennedy K, Esbeck A, Colaprete T, Elphic R, Captain J, Zacny K, Stolov L, Mellerowicz B, Palmowski J, Bramson A, Putzig N, Morgan G, Sizemore H, Coyan J (2021) Mission architecture using the SpaceX starship vehicle to enable a sustained human presence on Mars. https://www.liebertpub.com/doi/epdf/10.1089/space.2020.0058
Komar DR, Moses RW (2017) Hercules single-stage reusable vehicle supporting a safe, affordable, and sustainable human lunar & Mars campaign. In: AIAA SPACE and Astronautics forum and exposition, AIAA SPACE forum, (AIAA 2017–5288), AIAA SPACE 2017 conference; 12–14 September 2017, Orlando
Moses RW, Bushnell DM (2016) Frontier in-situ resource utilization for enabling sustained human presence on Mars. NASA technical report, NASA/TM-2016-219182, April 2016
Moses RW, Bushnell D, Komar DR, Singleterry RC, Choi S, Litchford R, Chang-Diaz F, Carter M (2018) Maintaining human health for humans-Mars. In: 2018 AIAA SPACE and Astronautics forum and exposition, AIAA SPACE forum, (AIAA 2018–5360), 17–19 September 2018, Orlando
Mosher D (2017) SpaceX has published Elon Musk’s presentation about colonizing Mars – here’s the full transcript and slides. Business Insider.com, October 25, 2017. https://www.businessinsider.com/elon-musk-mars-iac-2017-transcript-slides-2017-10
NASA (2014) Journey to Mars, December 1, 2014. https://www.nasa.gov/content/nasas-journey-to-mars
NASA (2020) Artemis plan: NASA’s lunar exploration program overview, September 2020. https://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/atoms/files/artemis_plan-20200921.pdf
Price HW (2022) Concept for 2033 crewed mars orbital mission with Venus Flyby. In: AIAA SciTech 2022 Forum, (AIAA 2022–2494), 3–7 January 2022, San Diego. https://arc.aiaa.org/doi/abs/10.2514/6.2022-2494
Space.com (2017) Mars base Camp: Lockheed Martin’s Red Planet plan in pictures, September 28, 2017. https://www.space.com/38303-mars-base-camp-lockheed-martin-plan-pictures.html
Weir A (2011) The Martian. Broadway Books. https://www.andyweirauthor.com/books/the-martian-tr/the-martian-hc
Wikipedia (2022). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_mission_to_Mars
Zubrin R (2011) The case for Mars. Free Press. https://www.amazon.com/Case-Mars-Plan-Settle-Planet/dp/145160811X
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Section Editor information
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2022 This is a U.S. Government work and not under copyright protection in the U.S.; foreign copyright protection may apply
About this entry
Cite this entry
Moses, R. (2022). Opportunities for Human Exploration Beyond the Moon. In: Eckart, P., Aldrin, A. (eds) Handbook of Lunar Base Design and Development. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-05323-9_15-1
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-05323-9_15-1
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-030-05323-9
Online ISBN: 978-3-030-05323-9
eBook Packages: Springer Reference Physics and AstronomyReference Module Physical and Materials ScienceReference Module Chemistry, Materials and Physics