ROADMAPS TO THE FUTURE

摘要

The 2011 report of the International Space Exploration Coordination Group (ISECG) recommended two optional paths to a manned expedition to Mars. This month we look at one that gets humans working on alien worlds earlier.rnLast month we examined the Asteroid-Next directive as it related to the essential premise laid down by ISECG countries that the next goal for the human exploration of space should be the planet Mars. It recommended a path that would take progressive steps beyond the International Space Station (ISS) by having humans live at the Earth-Moon L1 Lagrangian (E-M L1) point aboard a Deep Space Habitat (DSH) from 2023, a structure derived from existing ISS modules. From there humans would visit asteroids as point-destinations to test communications, data transmission and tracking with habitable spacecraft on long distance flights.