A Spiral Approach for Development of Lunar and Martian Exploration Using Crew Exploration Vehicle

The Vision for Space Exploration encompasses the development of a newer spacecraft, the Crew Exploration Vehicle (CEV) and recommends using a `System of Systems' spiral approach for exploration of Moon, Mars and beyond. The CEV and other supporting spacecrafts have been developed through the methodology of optimal conceptual design based on need analysis and hierarchical function structure generation method. This optimal design method has been merged with the spiral approach to ensure that technologies, architectures and configurations will evolve over a period of time and will be integrated together in order to have a sustained and affordable exploration program.