Thread by @MartinaTruche

Humans to Mars conference by @ExploreMars has kicked off. It's taking place 5/16-18 at the National Academy of Sciences in Washington DC. Free live stream: livestream.com/viewnow/humans…

1/ Humans to Mars Agenda: exploremars.org/summit/#agenda

2/ "Life is not about finding yourself. Life is about creating yourself."

Creating new narrative for humanity, understanding our (new) place in universe.

kickoff with Janet Ivey (Explore Mars, Inc. | President) & Chris Carberry (Explore Mars, Inc. | CEO)

3/ Fireside Chat w/ Robert Cabana, NASA Associate Administrator & former NASA astronaut

Facilitator: Rich Cooper, The Space Foundation, VP, Strategic Comms, Outreach

NASA: non-partisan. It's critical to remain the world leader.

Not a fan of going to Mars on a 1way trip.

4/ 👀 NASA's Moon to Mars strategy: scan QR code or visit go.nasa.gov/3zzSNhp

Critical to know where and why we're going, share that in a way that folks understand it.

5/ International cooperative efforts. Czechia just joined the Artemis accord.

Starship has 100 seats: Elon will gladly drop off ~4 NASA astronauts on The Moon on the way to Mars 😂

We don't have gateway or lunar lander (yet)

Artemis 3: landing Humans on 🌙: huge challenge!

6/ Soon to announce 2nd 🌙 lander contract to have a redundancy

Looking at all options. Do we have to have a Gateway? All shall deliver *their* hardware on time (regardless of others' timelines), NASA will figure out which missions to fly and when

7/ Reputable notion to a Pittsburgh-based company @astrobotic ((they'll be delivering cargo to the Moon including NASA's; they build rovers and landers and will be also building a solar grid on the Moon))

8/ Q: Who gets to name the spacecraft? How would *you* name it?

A: The crew will name the spacecraft. In conjunction with each other hopefully.

Many great names have been used already. The exact right word has to capture imagination and spirit of what we're doing.

9/ Advice for young people?

Be really passionate about what you do. Bob loved being a pilot, test pilot, loves being . Study hard, be your best - do something you really enjoys -> easier to do well what you do.

Integrity, teamwork, excellence, inclusion.

Listening vs. hearing

10/ PANEL: Artemis III to Mars: How will Lunar surface missions advance humans to Mars?

Moderator: Beth Mund, Casual Space

Panelist 1: Masaki Fujimoto, JAXA | Deputy Director General of the Institute of Space and Astronautical Sciences

11/ Panelist 2: Shatel Bhakta (NASA | ESDMD Strategy & Architecture Office, Lunar Architecture Team Lead)

Panelist 3: Ben Tatman (Advanced Space | Senior Astrodynamics and Satellite Navigation Engineer, Section & Project Lead)

12/ Panelist 4: Joe Cassady (Aerojet Rocketdyne | Exec. Director, Space)

Panelist 5: Nicholas Cummings (SpaceX | Senior Director, Program Development, Civil and National Security Space)

13/ 1st: send rover to southern Moon region

Then: pressurized rover to the Moon surface

SLIM: Small lander for demonstrations. Can land on slope region - of high interest to science

14/ Tech demo program: to be driven by science teams

Then: Mars exploration

JAXA Mars landing: is a concept

More efficient, more sustainable

15/ JAXA is taking the development lead

16/ Benefits to humanity: science, inspiration, national posture (why Moon and continue to Mars)

Strategy and objectives go.nasa.gov/3zzSNhp

No one given architecture or manifest. Trying to keep it open, allowing for collaboration and integration of assests

17/ Different directorates within NASA - not just human prospect. It's a synergistic approach. Not as narrow focused as it was in the past. Wider engagement.

18/ Yearly reviews: was held earlier this yr. In the future: held in November.

19/ Science, inspiraiton, national posture.

Chat capabilities are needed? How do we retrun?

20/ Segments and sub-architectures:
Human lunar return (focus for ACR 22)
Foundational exploration
Sustained lunar evolution
Humans to Mars (focus for ACR 23)

21/ Some of the human lunar return segments

22/ Not a complete overview

23/ Areas for collaboration.

Will be holding events to colect feedback.

24/ QR code for ADD (Architecture Definition Document, Moon to Mars Architecture Summary & White Papers

25/ Ben Tatman (Advanced Space | Senior Astrodynamics and Satellite Navigation Engineer, Section & Project Lead)

26/ Lessons learned from Moon to Mars

Mars expertise: include Martian orbiters

27/ Playing a cool video of the NASA's SLS (Space Launch System) on November 16, 2023.

(side note: I was fortunate to see the SLS launch live, it looked like a sunrise, my video: )

28/ Various elements necessary for Artemis

29/ 🔥🔥🔥

30/ Artemis II & Beyond

Looking at hardware all the way through 5. Budget reflects these steps.

31/ RS-25 on the test stand - beautiful steam

32/ SpaceX, Nicholas Cummings

Pressurization done differently on this rocket

A few superheavy boosters & Starships in production

Next test flight shortly

Starship will land people on 🌙 in Artemis 3

Starship capability: take lots of people & tons of cargo to 🌙

33/ Q: Some of the things different / more challenging on Mars vs. Moon

- entry, descent, mining
- atmosphere
- terrain
- infrastructure
- challenges are also opportunities
- weight (lightweight missions to the Mars)
- everyone has different pieces, not a full solution
- latency

34/ Q: Maars communication challenges wrt architectural ways to communicate. How to run effectively, smoothly? Analog astronauts: challenging to simulate delays.

-free space loss of radio signal: need bigger antena
-solar conjunction on other side of the Sun

35/ (cont: Mars communication challenges)

-difficulty for reliable comm
- relays
- other architectural elements: satellites on Mars, hub satellite
- higher volume of data

36/
Gateway (upcoming lunar space station)

- real time communication
- test out systems conceptually
- habitation and transportation modules

- how much can be done by robotic asses?
- Things being done ahead of time

37/ Dust is always a problem

- lunar regolith: especially problematic

- Mars: dust in atmosphere - covers solar arrays
-> we need nuclear power

38/ Q: Challenge of food & medicine: degrade over time. Resupply, logistics, Starship cadence?

- Opportunities: learn to produce food on Mars & in transit
- Experiments on ISS: fresh veggies
- Transport large quantities and store
- Combine w/ local production to keep spirit up

39/ Host Beth Mund: "Everyone wants to go until they realize what they need to eat"

40/ Q: Artificial gravity?

- numerous studies what it takes to do that
- not a large effort to implement
- not in near term for Moon

- mixed opinions - prospective astronaut: "You wanna put me into space and take away the coolest part - zero G"? 😂

41/ Fireside chat w/ @DrSianProctor - 🧑‍🚀& mission pilot from @inspiration4x

- Earthlight: like Moonlight, just more spectacular

- We'll have Marslight

- Supporting young generations through Proctor Foundation for Art and Science & space camps proctor.foundation

42/ Still in touch with the @inspiration4x crew. Yes - @DrSianProctor would love to go back to space. Is a qualified pilot for Dragon, happy to upgrade to Starship 😇🚀

Analogs (analog astronaut missions): roadmap for Moon and Mars

43/ @DrSianProctor
- made a cookbook for analogs
- investigated food strategies for NASA for 4 months
- add a chef title ;)

We don't want astronauts to be hangry!

44/ Humans to Mars Summit - for the benefit of Humans on Earth😍

45/ Panel: DRACO Program – Nuclear Propulsion

Moderator: Dr. Bhavya Lal: @NASA | Associate Administrator for Technology, Policy, and Strategy

Dr. Tabitha Dodson: @DARPA | DRACO Program Manager)

Anthony Calomino (@NASA | STMD, Space Nuclear Technology Portfolio Manager

46/ NASA has been investing in nuclear tech & propulsion for a while

Nuclear thermal propulsion: relatively new concept.
Reactor as a heat exchanger, extremely high temperature. Have to have a reactor that can operate those temperatures

Nuclear thermal rocket engine

47/ Cislunar: opportunity to develop operational capability: transpiration system Earth ->Moon, ascend & descend capability.

Translate to Mars.

Fission surface power
- Capability driven by fission: 10s KW -> MW of
power
- 40KW range
- scale up or down (Mars vs Moon)

48/ Nuclear electric propulsion. Subscale capability - meaningful for cislunar operations, maybe deep space exploration missions -> integrated systems -> design and investment strategy for human transportation systems for Mars.

Working w/ unis & industries

49/ DARPA focusing on nuclear thermal rockets

DRACO=Demonstration for Rocket to Agile Cislunar Operations; NASA & DARPA collab

NASA priorities: reliability & safety

Earth based tests

Once engines operated in space - far from Earth and public for 1000 yrs w/o intent to return

50/ How Space Debris Could Prevent Mission To Mars

Brian Bartelo - a talented young student ; The Mars Generation

51/ If people break their bike, do they retrieve it? (most do if they can).

Retrieving space debris is harder than on Earth: have to catch it & bring back

52/ Kessler syndrome: the longer the debris goes unchecked, the harder it will be to mitigate

53/ Hard to quantify: what's debris vs. dust?
Like measuring leaves in the windstorm

Hard to track: esp. when unable to communicate w/ satellite (e.g. when broken)

54/ Look for specific objects, specific satellites for more data: astria.tacc.utexas.edu/AstriaGraph

55/ quoting @DrSianProctor : debris is something we need to chase after it

We belong to the stars

referring to @ChrisSembroski: @inspiration4x had a shield to protect form a debris, but were at a higher risk due to higher altitude

Space tourism impacts

56/ Talking w/ experts:

Space debris problem is far away from being solved

Spoke w/ Artemis: biz & companies have to be working together, not just one or another - all unique advantages and problems

57/ Re space debris:

Has to beneficial to clean up (~reward)

Corporate buy in: best way to solve this

e.g. through contracts from major space agencies

Nobody wants space debris from hitting their house. We have to protect humans on the ground, some materials don't burn out.

58/ Space traffic police - Who?

Military? probably not their job to be space traffic cop.

59/ Reward innovation

Develop strtegies to mittigate the issue & take Kessler Syndrome serously

Have an env plan for space

-> to explore Mars

60/ Mars Science Precursors & Objectives

Moderator: Jim Green, @NASA Chief Scientist, Ret

Lori Glaze, @NASA Dir Planetary Science

Albert Haldemann, @esa ESTEC, Mars Chief Eng, Mars Exploration Grp

Masaki Fujimoto, @JAXA_en Deputy Dir Gen - Institute of Space & Astro Sciences

61/ Perseverance rover exploring

Robotic arm to hold samples & return to Earth

62/ Launch form Mars (1st time ever), capture by ESA

Return to Earth in Utah desert

Techniques we haven't developed yet

w/ help of scientists who are probably in elementary school currently

63/ More frequent smaller missions

Identify potential landing sites

Emphasis on preparing science, taking advantage of int partnerships & commercial capabilities

Emerging interests; how can they explore the solar system

64/ Inspire

4 elements for exploration endoresed by stakeholders in 2014:

-Knowledge
-Inspiration
-Economy
GLobal Cooperation & Challenges

ESA: MULTInational agency. Partner w/ other agencies aroud the globe.

65/ Implementation:
1. Humans in LEO (Low Eart Orbit)
2. Humans beyond LEO
3. Moon robotic exploraiton
4. Mars robotic exploraiton

Human physiology

66/ Attached visual: depicting where we are now.

Where is the methane?

67/ Masaki Fujimoto (JAXA | Deputy Director General of the Institute of Space and Astronautical Sciences)

MMX: Martian Moons Exploration

JAXA Mars landing in 3 steps

68/ Establishing alternative ways for exploring Mars

Desert of Umera: entry capsule

Martian atmosphere is tenuous, don't have to worry about the heat

Alternative tech for EDL: Inflatable soft air shell

-> Have to worry about descelerating asset to the ground: need bigger area

69/ Can bring ~200 kg rover to Mars

70/ Limited resources

Interested in frequent missions to the Mars surface

71/ Prevent cross contamination.

Keep samples contained until determined they are safe. How?

Not send humans to Mars, but bring them back

72/ Institutional challenges

Who are the stakeholders?

Who has the say?

Lot of stakeholders to answer to - takes work

Expecting more surprising in the future: in our understanding. Where are volatiles located on Mars?

Blue sunset, red sky: alien planet!

73/ Drill: near sub surface

Understand gradient of oxidation

Geotech environment needs to be understood to send humans

Water: critical resource. How deep in the crust?

74/ What new exciting things will take place that human explorations can take advantage of?

Interesting question - when will we know enough?

Not ready to send humans to Mars until more confident about synergy w/ robotic systems

75/ Different agencies, different timelines, different budgetary challenges at different times.

Agencies benefit from the collaborations.

Emerging interest in smaller countries w/ smaller budgets. Looking for opportunities to expand community of partners.

76/ Convincing stakeholders to add other people

Somebody has to be the metronome and lead: what's done and when, hold others accountable

77/ Leveraging and demonstrating: Perseverance, Ingenuity, Moxie, instrument the entry shield, astronaut spacesuit and space shield - how they perform and degrade

78/ Re Technology:

Portfolio of tech across the board

Knowledge base of what's possible: management, maintenance, communication

Technology is not hardware, it's people and their knowledge how to do something

Become more autonomous - those who operate - fantastic programmers

79/ Reliability vs. capability (e.g. of cube sats - don't have to be standalone, can be embedded in a larger system. Don't have to do everything by yourself w/ a limited capability.)

80/ Steve Sherman interviewing Lori Glaze during lunch break

DAVINCI a planned mission for an orbiter & atmospheric probe to Venus in 2029; Other Venus missions

@cmu_iris will fly to 🌙

@astrobotic & @Int_Machines sell space on their landers. It's their mission, not NASA's.

81/ Some have tried to get to the Moon. Why is it difficult?

Everything related to space is challenging!

Attempts by multiple parties: Don't expect everyone to land softly ;)

Will we be able to visit the Moon? - Hope so!

82/ "Percy" & "Genny" (=Perseverance rover & Ingenuity helicopter lo NASA)

Collecting geologic samples

Q;Chance of finding a microbe, even if fossilized?
- Reasonable probability of past life on Mars
- Present life not likely

83/ Jupiter:

- JUICE to explore Jupiter's Moons

- Upcoming mission: Europa Clipper 2024 (leave) -2030-31 (arrive). To map out ice shell, how thick it is, what it's made of, how salty the water is. How deep the ocean is. Europa: one of the most exciting places w/ possible life.

84/ The Power of Inclusion: Advancing the goal of humans on Mars by empowering underserved communities through analogs and space camps

Introducing:

@macmalkawi (Borderless Labs Inc. | Founder and President)

Salam Abulhaija (Borderless Labs Inc (BLINC) | Science Communicator)

85/ Mac: Analog themed space camp

Salam as a litte girl was inspired by a book and movie about a space. Decided to be an astronaut. Saw an ad: spacesuit competition in Jordan - applied and won. 3 challenges of spacesuit design
- chose to solve for Mars.

86/ Jordan: 2 IIAS scholarships. Tried different astronaut adventures such as a zero G flight or a pressurized spacesuit (Salam's favorite!).

87/ Other languages don't have exciting space events and documentaries. If we can do that in other languages, we can inspire 100ks young people!

Photo: Salam scuba diving in the red sea.
(This time last yr: was learning how to swim!)

Inspired by @inspiration4x - crew cohesion

88/ Spacesuit they built is not a costume - it has multiple functional life support systems!

Yupp women can do welding :)

89/ They built a fully functional rover, will be taking to Saudi next wk. Nutrition and other aspects. All to inspire young generations. BLINC: space themed camp. All it took was to give them access.

90/ Industry Leadership Perspective: The Future of Space

Salvatore T. "Tory" Bruno (ULA | President and Chief Executive Officer)

Starting with a very cool video with animations and demonstration 😍

91/ History of lunar exploration

We're going back to the Moon

Permanent like ISS: Gateway station on the lunar orbit. Part of architecture is reusable, part is expandable.

Humans will do things boots on the ground that robots can't do

Be safe & practical

92/ Distances:

LEO

GEO

Moon

Mars

93/ "Moon is on the way to Mars": not literally

ifnuclear propulsion, it will be shorter, still a big deal

94/ Mars and the radiation story

95/ Radiation continued

Radiation on the space station

Transit out to Mars. If not protected or mistake in protection: get cancer

Mars misison: 1 yr transit, 1 yr on Mars

Robots and humans will be collaborating (it's not either or)

96/ Solar particle events

🔺Geomagnetic storms

⬛️ Missions

Exposures: think Chernobyl.

97/ Space radiation

Radiation shielding:

- Alpha: can't penetrate yr skin. Paper will stop it. Have to eat it to harm you.

- Beta: Aluminum stops it

- Gamma: further down

- Neutrons: the only kind of radiation that makes other things radioactive

- GCS (galactic cosmic rays)

98/ Good reasons to stay - not "beat another country" 😉

More global human dignity

Make it affordable and sustainable

Stamina to meet goals, put people permanently on Mars

99/ Cislunar resources:

How can we have a smaller footprint?

People will live and work in space

-> Resources to go to Mars & stay there

100/ water is everywhere. Not sure in which form -> not sure how to extract it.

Q: what if we run out of water on the Moon? Now: 100M yrs there -> maybe 1M yrs.

Every place we look there is water: Mars

101 / Materials and manufacturing.

Inexpensive energy. Renewable to balance the grid.

Generate power in space -> Earth -> ubiquitous cheap power everywhere . Not a choke on econ prosperity like today.

102/ Strategic space propellant reserve as stimulus

103/ Cislunar timeline 👀🌙

Vision for Moon to Mars

Tourism, exploring -> 100s people living & working in space in the next few decadese

91/ a

104/ A break chat w/ Salvatore T. "Tory" Bruno (ULA | President and Chief Executive Officer)

105/ International panel on Artemis Accords: An International Campaign to the Moon and Mars

Moderator: Mike Gold - @RedwireSpace

Valda Vikmanis-Keller U.S. State Department

Gabriel Swiney - @NASA

Masami Onoda - @JAXA_en

Aniello Violetti - Embassy of Italy

106/ Artemis accord and Artemis program

Putting the 1st woman & 1st POC on the Moon

Diversity of nations

Peaceful

Transparency

107/ Interoperability

Emergency assistance

Release of scientific data

Release of scientific data

108/ Protecting heritage

Space resources

Deconfliction of activities

Debris & disposal

109/ Applause for the Czech Republic joining Artemis recently 👏🇨🇿🚀🌙

🇨🇿 24th signatory of Artemis accords

Signed first 2 African nations: Rwanda and Nigeria

Increasing # signatories

Designing missions around these principles

110/ How many people here in the room have read the Artemis accords? (seem more should have ;))

You can catch up on #Artemis Accords here: nasa.gov/specials/artem…

111/ @JAXA_en statement: Joint Exploration Declaration of Intent (JEDI)

Japan would like to land a Japanese astronaut on the Moon by late 2020s

112/ Partnerships and collaborations: DoC, private sector, PPP (public private partnerships)

RFPs

113/ Are space resources gonna be a thing? People sometimes don't now how to feel about that. Legalities. International churns.

Since Artemis Accord came out in 2020: international and domestic conversations: how we should do space resources

Operational world

114/ Questions and discussions include: When does it make sense to use space resources vs. bring stuff with you?

115/ Mars: Atmosphere, wind, more gravity - more challenging to land & do things. Safety - different.

116/ Inspiring talk by Charity Weeden, @astroscale_HQ VP of Global Space Policy & Gov Relations

ISAM revolution: in-space servicing, assembly, and manufacturing

Need adoption. Limit risk in orbit. Tap into resiliency reserves when needed. Positive legacy for future gens.

117/ Panel NASA Objectives: What Next? Fireside chat

Moderator: @jeff_foust - @SpaceNews_Inc

Dr. Bhavya Lal (NASA | Associate Administrator for Technology, Policy, and Strategy)
Dr. Kurt (Spuds) Vogel (NASA | Director of Space Architectures, Office of the Administrator)

118/ Understand WHAT we wanna accomplish

Ensure it's:

Achievable

Detailed

Doesn't change

Need sufficient funding to get the job done

119/ WHAT are we trying to accomplish?

Some accomplished on Moon or Mars. It's neither. We're developing blueprint for sustained human presence in solar system

120/ Start w/ the goal. Decompose. What does it take to do that?

→ Inject tech solutions

→ Mosaic who's doing what

Consistency & resiliency (to budget, tech solutions, politically) Same answers & goals.

Honor 4th principle: be unified

Communication & feedback

121/ Scope:

- Get to Moon?
- Do the minimum?
- Go to Mars w/o Moon?

Get there → survive → thrive → be productive

Analog activities for Mars - blueprint demo

122/ Top-level goals

Strategic principles

Architecture concept reviews (see QR code to see docs)

Not realistic to have all architecture after a few months

Exploration, global utilization, lunar evolution, mars analog

123/ Bhavya Lal @NASA: What will these operations mean for NASA & humanity? Future aligned w/ values.

Overarching considerations
Protect special locations on Moon & Mars w/ unique characteristics: Eternal light: crucial for solar power. Quiet zone. Limited area w/ lots interest.

124/ Not all materialize as NASA missions: some by industry under NASA contract

❓How do data transparency policies apply to purchased vs. collected data?

❓How not to bring harmful contamination?
(tech vs. 🧑‍🚀)

❓Impact on biosphere

❓Ethics (NASA recently held a workshop)

125/ M2M Objectives and Categories

Physics & physical science

How should NASA partner w/ international partners?

127/ Moon to Mars objectives

"now it's time to get to work"

128/ Constancy & unity of purpose. Communicate what & why we're gonna do.

129/ Tech people have to put the bets down: which tech are we gonna need?

Evolutionary architecture process: We'll be hitting Mars again and again and refine:

Analog activities. Moon and Mars are difference. Regolith and processes different, but lessons learned.

130/ Need a steady cadence. Listen, transmit, explain what's going on.

Webinar next wk & workshop in June (details to be announced)

Can imagine yearly cadence.

131/ Q: Where are we gonna go after Mars?

Dr. Kurt (Spuds) Vogel: Picture: Europa. That's not NASA saying we're gonna go there. It's a blueprint.

Dr. Bhavya Lal: depends robots vs. humans

132/ Can imagine a balance of traditional vs. new approach

Objectives & goals established separate from specific tech solutions or acquisition approaches

Commercial crew & cargo very successful. Leverage experiences to change paradigm.

Caution: careful how we press forward.

133/ Concluding day 1 of H2M 2023

On of the main highlights: being there w/ Mars community who will put us on the red planet

"What happens if the toilet breaks on the way to Mars? - Everybody dies!"

Important topics: analogs and accessibility

134/ @threadreaderapp unroll