The latest presentation to the Future In-Space Operations (FISO) study group is now posted in the FISO Working Group Presentations Archive. Both slides (pdf) and audio (mp3) are available for the talk, Affording Mars – a Workshop, a Plan, a Future Course for Human Spaceflight, Michael Raftery (Boeing) & Joseph Cassady (Aerojet) – Feb.19.14

This is an overview of the Affording Mars Workshop held last December in Washington, DC. , which was organized by the Explore Mars group.

Their Mars mission architectures used the exorbitantly expensive SLS/Orion systems and did not employ any innovative low-cost approach like Mars Direct. Other than employing the ISS in preparations more extensively, their program design doesn’t seem much different than previous Mars plans at NASA. Yet they claim to have shown that human Mars exploration can be affordable. That is, they are claiming that doing the same thing yet again and expecting a different result was not insane this time.