The Moon to Mars Program Office focuses on hardware development, mission integration, and risk management tasks for programs essential to the agency’s exploration approach, which uses Artemis missions at the Moon to usher in a new era of scientific discovery and get ready for manned missions to Mars, as directed by the 2022 NASA Authorization Act.
The new office will also be in charge of long-term planning and analysis to support human journeys to Mars.
Previously, Amit Kshatriya contributed management and integration for some of the initiatives that are now within the purview of the new office while serving as acting deputy associate administrator for Common Exploration Systems Development.
The deputy for the Moon to Mars Program Office will be Lakiesha Hawkins. Hawkins will assist Kshatriya in all facets of day-to-day management and operations of the office in her capacity as her deputy. The office’s technical deputy will be Stephen Creech.
Together with NASA’s Science, Space Technology, and Space Operations Mission Directorates, the mission directorate has undergone updates. This includes the Strategy and Architecture Office, which creates the integrated master plan based on the agency’s Moon to Mars Goals.
While maintaining a laser-like focus on Artemis and other agency mission priorities like International Space Station operations, commercial crew and cargo, and more, NASA has diligently worked to assess and align its two human spaceflight organizations since establishing its Exploration Systems Mission Directorate in September 2021.