Innovative Mars Global International Exploration (IMaGInE) Mission - First Place Winning Paper

Abstract

This paper presents the conceptual design of the IMaGInE (Innovative Mars Global International Exploration) Mission whose mission objectives are to deliver a crew of four astronauts to the surface of Deimos and a robotic exploration mission to Phobos for approx-imately 343 days during the years 2031 and 2032, perform surface excursions, technology demonstrations, and In Situ Resource Utilization (ISRU) of the Martian moons as well as site reconnaissance for future human exploration of Mars. This is the winning mission design of the 2016 Revolutionary Aerospace Systems Concepts-Academic Linkage (RASC-AL) competition, awarded with the "Best in Theme," "Best Overall," and "Pio-neering Exceptional Achievement Concept Honor (PEACH)" prizes. This competition was sponsored by NIA and NASA.