Orbital ATK is the primary developer of the Cygnus spacecraft, which is the company's flagship vehicle for logistics support for the International Space Station (ISS) under NASA's Cargo Resupply Service (CRS) contracts. Cygnus had five successful resupply missions to the ISS, with six additional missions scheduled under CRS1 and a minimum of six missions under CRS2. Orbital ATK is taking the experience learned from the Cygnus missions and applying them to their NextSTEP (Next Space Technologies for Exploration Partners) contract, which is looking at adapting a Cygnus vehicle into a habitat for deep space exploration. This paper will discuss the various attributes and benefits of including a Cygnus derived habitat in NASA's Journey to Mars exploration architecture. It will look at the three areas NASA has defined in their road map to Mars; Earth Reliant, Proving Ground, and Earth Independent and evaluate how a Cygnus derived vehicle can support the goal for deep space exploration.
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