The Human Role in Planetary Exploration - A UK Perspective

*Hitherto, the United Kingdom (UK) has avoided participation in human spaceflight programmes, but has nevertheless made significant scientific and technological contributions to solar system exploration (as illustrated by the innovative albeit eventually unsuccessful Beagle 2 Mars lander), Earth observation, commercial and military communications systems and navigation. The Royal Aeronautical Society (RAeS) decided it was time to review the UK’s options in human spaceflight, and has undertaken an extensive consultation exercise on which this paper reports. To facilitate the collection and collation of views, a discussion paper was published at the end of 2005, which has generated a wide range of responses, and has underpinned a number of meetings of British opinion formers. In that discussion paper, the concept of “man-in-the-loop” was used to help clarify where on-the-spot human intervention is essential. The RAeS discussion paper then advocated programmes that clarify the requirements for, and address the key challenges of, human Mars missions. This current paper summarizes the responses of various stakeholder communities to the ideas put forward in the RAeS discussion paper, and assesses how UK policy could evolve.