Architecture for Protracted Exploration

Exploration of the universe is and will be an endless process. President Bush has issued a challenge for the phase covering the next 30 years, in other words a generation-long endeavor. We have been studying and exploring the heavens for millennia. The new factors are exploration by humans, the time-line for the next phase, and the ultimate goal of this next phase of human exploration and ultimate colonization of Mars. The Schriever Institute has chosen to focus on the latter; setting up a human colony on Mars and all that entails. That long perspective generates the need for an enduring and evolving architecture. The Schriever Institute looks to the ASCE to grasp the opportunity and take the lead in conceptualizing and developing the necessary architecture to support the Human Explorer in the decades to come. The Space colonies depend on the expertise of civil engineering within the ASCE community. We, at the Schriever Institute appreciate the opportunity to participate in and contribute to ASCE's efforts developing our Space Architecture. Moreover, the President raised the challenge at a time when we have a substantially rich technology base coupled with that of an expanding and emerging technology continuum. Given that heritage, we anticipate continuous discovery, invention, emerging technologies and applications to this imaginative and challenging endeavor. The new NASA Administrator, Michael Griffin, faces the usual challenges, however, let us, as a Nation, rise up to the opportunity and take the necessary steps required to make it a reality.