Symposium Overview:

This study brings together experts from across science, engineering, and the emerging commercial space sector to tackle a central challenge: how to make ambitious Moon and Mars science missions dramatically more affordable and achievable in the near term. Rather than starting from scratch, the effort builds on more than a decade of prior work on low-cost missions, updating those insights with current technologies, industry practices, and institutional realities. Participants should expect a highly interactive, working-style symposium focused on synthesizing ideas, identifying gaps, and aligning on what truly enables missions to move from concept to execution.

During the symposium, the primary goal is to translate the study’s vision into aligned, actionable outcomes through focused collaboration. Specifically, participants will: (i) converge on a shared understanding of credible, low-cost Moon and Mars missions—using pre-defined exemplar missions as reference points rather than primary design efforts; (ii) prioritize and refine key principles into practical implementation requirements across mission design, management, and institutional processes; (iii) align diverse stakeholder perspectives on risk posture, roles, and value delivery; and (iv) produce tangible outputs, including a draft action plan with accountable leads, an initial structure for a “living” framework, and clear next steps toward enabling near-term mission execution.

This Symposium is organized in partnership with the Brinson Exploration Hub.