USA Africa Dialogue Series - The Global Exploration Roadmap 2013

The 2013 roadmap includes a single reference mission scenario that reflects the importance of a stepwise evolution of critical capabilities which are necessary for executing increasingly complex missions to multiple destinations, leading to human exploration of Mars. The roadmap demonstrates how initial capabilities can enable a variety of missions in the lunar vicinity, responding to individual and common goals and objectives, while contributing to building the partnerships required for sustainable human space exploration.

Enabling humans to explore the surface of Mars in a manner that is sustainable, affordable, and productive is a long-term goal that we will use to help shape our near-term activities. This goal informs capability evolution and technology investments. The pathway to Mars extends human presence to enable exploration of multiple destinations, including the Moon and near-Earth asteroids.

The Global Exploration Roadmap creates a framework for interagency discussions in three areas: 1) common goals and objectives, 2) a long-range human exploration strategy, and 3) coordination of exploration preparatory activities. By understanding the elements common to their exploration goals and objectives, and by collaborating to examine potential long-range scenarios, agencies continue to inform near-term decisions affecting their exploration preparation and to create opportunities for the partnerships which will realize future missions.