Joshua W. Ehrlich
Papers
2
Total Citations
20
H-Index
2
About
Joshua W. Ehrlich is a leading aerospace systems architect whose work is central to humanity’s return to the Moon and eventual journey to Mars. His primary research areas encompass human deep-space exploration architectures, crewed vehicle design, and advanced mission concepts for extreme planetary environments. Ehrlich’s most notable contribution is the “Mars Base Camp” architecture, a visionary yet practical plan for sending humans to Mars by 2028, which has garnered significant attention (16 citations) for its integration of the Orion Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle into a sustainable, stepwise exploration strategy. This work, developed during his tenure at Lockheed Martin, helped shape the technical foundation for NASA’s Artemis program. More recently, Ehrlich has pioneered concepts for exploring the lunar south pole through in-flight swarm deployments of small spacecraft, a novel approach to prospecting for water ice and other resources (4 citations). His research directly supports national policy goals for a permanent lunar presence and demonstrates how modular, reusable systems can lower the cost and risk of deep-space missions. Ehrlich’s work stands out for its blend of engineering rigor and bold, achievable vision.
Research Focus
Key Achievements
Top Papers
- 1Mars Base Camp: An architecture for sending humans to Mars by 202816 citations · 2017
- 2Exploring Extreme Lunar Environments through In-Flight Swarm Deployments4 citations · 2021