How will future human settlers on #Mars celebrate #Thanksgiving? The #MarsArt shown is the @lockheedmartin #MarsBaseCamp concept presented at #IAC2017 in Adelaide, South Australia on September 29, 2017. From @spacenewsmagazine : βYou can fuel up in orbit and have enough for a two- or three-week stay on the surface with up to four crew,β said Rob Chambers, one of the Mars Base Camp designers, in an interview at the conference prior to the presentation. The lander could be then refueled and flown again, he said, with up to three trips to the surface per mission to Mars. He said the lander is intended to support at least six sorties to the Martian surface over its life. This concept can be extended to the moon as well. βDo we, the human race, want to start landing on the moon again?β he said. βLetβs do the best we can not to create something thatβs a point solution for the moon but think about what it will allow us to do for Mars as well.β The overall Mars Base Camp proposal also fits into concepts under study by @nasa for a Deep Space Gateway in cislunar space that serves as a testbed for future Mars missions. Chambers said that the interest in the gateway concept, along with language in a NASA authorization bill signed into law earlier this year that calls for a report on a human Mars mission by 2033, have shown to the company that the Mars Base Camp concept is viable. βThe Moon has always been the gateway to get to Mars,β he said. βThe big focus is to make sure we donβt lose sight of Mars as we start to work the details of the moon.β http://spacenews.com/lockheed-martin-adds-lander-to-mars-base-camp-concept/
