NASA Seeks Wisdom of Crowd for Mars Robot Missions

NASA is enlisting the help of scientists and engineers worldwide to lay plans for sending a robot to Mars. The planning group's ultimate mission is to send humans to Mars by the 2030s.

NASA is organizing a meeting, called Concepts and Approaches for Mars Exploration, at the Lunar and Planetary Institute in Houston, Texas this June. Scientists and technologists can submit ideas for papers online, some of which will be presented at the conference. The robotic mission ideas should be geared toward near-term missions, which could start as early as 2018, as well as longer-term goals. NASA hopes the new approach of seeking input from outsiders will generate good ideas and help maintain technical skills in the U.S., the agency said.