A Mars Ascent Vehicle for Potential Mars Sample Return

This paper will cover the conceptual design of a
Mars Ascent Vehicle (MAV) and efforts underway to raise the
TRL at both the component and system levels. A system down
select was executed resulting in a Hybrid Propulsion based
Single Stage To Orbit (SSTO) MAV baseline architecture.
This paper covers the Point of Departure design, as well as
results of hardware developments that will be tested in several
upcoming flight opportunities.