Exploration System Mission Directorate and Constellation Program Support for Analogue Missions

During fiscal year (FY) 2007, NASA's Exploration Systems Mission Directorate (ESMD) and the Constellation Program Office began the first steps of implementing a plan to coordinate and support analogue activities. These activities were chosen based on their alignment with the goals and objectives of this analogue effort as well as their contribution to the validation of requirements and technologies for future human missions hypothesized as part of the Vision for Space Exploration. NASA supported five workshops or conferences with international participation (JUSTSAP 2006, STAIF 2007, a NASA-sponsored workshop during the 2007 LPSC, IMEWG, and the 2nd International Workshop: Exploring Mars and its Earth Analogues) to disseminate knowledge of these efforts to the interested community. NASA also provided resources to three analogue missions (Haughton-Mars Project, NEEMO 13, and Desert-RATS) to accomplish tests or demonstrations of interest to future VSE missions. In addition, the Constellation Office sent personnel to Svalbard, a location already in use for scientific analogue investigations, to investigate its utility for other hardware and operations testing. Results from these activities have been documented and the results will be posted on a readily accessible NASA Web site set up for this purpose after final approvals are received for opening this Web site. This presentation will (1) briefly summarize ESMD's current plan for future analog mission support; (2) discuss material presented at the conference and workshop venues as well as specific analogue tests and demonstrations supported along with the contribution each has made to VSE-related requirements or technologies during FY 2007; (3) summarize plans for FY 2008; and (4) note improvements made to NASA's analogues Web site