Mars Exploration Program Analysis Group (MEPAG) issues updated report on Mars exploration

Report emphasizes synergies between near-term lunar and Mars exploration goals

The Mars Exploration Program Analysis Group (MEPAG) released its updated report on the state of NASA’s Mars Exploration Program, titled ‘Mars Science Goals, Objectives, Investigations, and Priorities’, last week. The MEPAG Goals Committee, chaired by Don Banfield of Cornell University, reported on the progress towards the four goals identified as being central to the program’s success: determining if Mars has supported, or supports, life; understanding the Martian climate; understanding Mars’ origin and evolution as a geological system; and preparing for human exploration. The document represents the most recent version of a report that has been issued roughly every two years since 2001, as the state of knowledge of the Red Planet has progressed with increasing speed.

As might be expected given the prioritization given to the Artemis lunar program since its inception in 2017, the report concludes by emphasizing the synergies between crewed lunar exploration and human missions to Mars, stating that ‘we may be able to leverage investments in human safeguards to survive on the Moon for use at Mars…. As we reach out to the two bodies most likely to be within landed reach of humans in the near future, many of the techniques developed for one would serve both targets.’ Go to https://mepag.jpl.nasa.gov/ for more information.