While the near-term focus of NASA's human exploration program is on the return of humans to the Moon in the mkl-2020s, the human exploration of Mars continues to be NASA's horizon goal. A key element of human Mars exploration architectures is the in-space propulsion system required for transferring crew and cargo between Earth orbit and Mars orbit. This paper details two in-space propulsion system options for human Mars missions in the 2030s and beyond: nuclear thermal propulsion and a hybrid system utilizing nuclear electric propulsion and chemical propulsion. For each propulsion option, a description of the 2039 Opposition crew mission and corresponding crew vehicle is provided. Launch manifesting is performed and a comparison of the number, and type, of launches is provided as a means of comparing cost and complexity. Finally, a plan for a campaign analysis comparison is discussed in a future work section.
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