Introduction
NASA is leading our nation and our world on a journey to Mars. Like the
Apollo Program, we embark on this journey for all humanity. Unlike Apollo,
we will be going to stay. This is a historic pioneering endeavor—a journey
made possible by a sustained effort of science and exploration missions
beyond low Earth orbit with successively more capable technologies and
partnerships.
This pioneering endeavor carries out the direction given to us in the 2010
NASA Authorization Act and in the U.S. National Space Policy. It engages
all four NASA Mission Directorates and all NASA Centers and Laboratories.
It enlists the best of academia and industry across the nation and builds on
our existing international partnerships while embracing new ones. And like
pioneering efforts before it, the journey to Mars will foster and attract new
commercial enterprises.
Why Mars? Mars is the horizon goal for pioneering space; it is the next tangible
frontier for expanding human presence. Our robotic science scouts at Mars
have found valuable resources for sustaining human pioneers, such as water
ice just below the surface. These scouts have shown that Mars’ geological
evolution and climate cycles were comparable to Earth’s, and that at one time,
Mars had conditions suitable for life. What we learn about the Red Planet will
tell us more about our Earth’s past and future, and may help answer whether
life exists beyond our home planet. Together with our partners, we will pioneer
Mars and answer some of humanity’s fundamental questions:
• Was Mars home to microbial life? Is it today?
Could it be a safe home for humans one day?
What can it teach us about life elsewhere in the cosmos
or how life began on Earth?
What can it teach us about Earth’s past, present, and future?
Mars is an achievable goal. We have spent more than four decades on the
journey to Mars, with wildly successful robotic explorers. The first human
steps have been taken through science and technology research aboard the
International Space Station (ISS) and in laboratories here on Earth. We are
taking the next steps by developing the Space Launch System (SLS) and the
Orion crewed spacecraft, demonstrating new operations to reduce logistics,
and preparing for human missions into cislunar space, such as exploring a
captured asteroid. There are challenges to pioneering Mars, but we know they
are solvable. We are developing the capabilities necessary to get there, land
there, and live there.
1