Small Spacecraft Community of Practice
Subscribe to receive announcements for the Small Spacecraft Systems Virtual Institute’s (S3VI) monthly webinar series and quarterly newsletter here. We look forward to your participation!
Low-Cost Mission Concepts for Mars Exploration
Speaker: Nathan Barba, NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory
Wednesday, June 15, 2022
10:00AM-11:00AM Pacific Daylight Time
Click here to watch the webinar.
Click here to download the presentation.
Please contact Julianna.L.Fishman@nasa.gov if you experience issues with the audiovisual connection to this webinar.
Abstract: In the coming decade, small spacecraft (SSc) missions, both orbiters and landers, can provide decadal-class science capability, augment flagship missions, establish dedicated Mars infrastructure, and gather key reconnaissance in preparation for the human exploration of Mars, at mission costs that are a fraction of the current Discovery Program cost cap. The paradigm shift in capability cost can be attributed to many factors, including an order-of-magnitude reduction in cost to launch enabled by rideshare and emerging small launch vehicles, new advances in propulsive and aerocapture technologies, the existence and development of SSc-compatible science instruments capable of high-precision and/or fundamentally novel measurements. We will discuss mission concepts that are compatible with small orbiters and landers, and the instruments, technologies, and infrastructure that enable them. The timely opportunity for low-cost, frequent access to Mars is given now and, if utilized in this decade, can act as a springboard for reducing the costs and maturing the technologies needed for small spacecraft missions going, at a later stage, beyond Mars to Venus, to the asteroid belt and the Jovian system.
Bio: Nathan Barba is a systems engineer with the Advanced Design Engineering Group at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. He is the study lead for the Mars Exploration Program’s Small Spacecraft Study. Nathan received his M.S. in Systems Engineering and his B.S. in mechanical engineering from Arizona State University. His current focus at JPL is small spacecraft system engineering, project formulation, and instrument development. He is also the lead systems engineer for the SHIELD rough lander concept.
S3VI encourages the community to submit questions before the webinar to enable more directed responses. Please send questions to raquel.l.redhouse@nasa.gov.
