GALVESTON, Texas Even though a human mission to Mars isnt officially on the books yet, and may not be for some time, researchers continue to develop and improve techniques that will be used someday in a flight to the Red Planet.

Visions of Mars

The International Mars Society Champions Human Missions: Undaunted by the setbacks that seem to have NASA in turmoil, the International Mars Society is pressing forward with its activities to gain support for human exploration of the Red Planet.

Q & A With Robert Zubrin, President, International Mars Society:SPACE.com spoke with Zubrin about the International Mars Society's plans for human missions to Mars.

Some ideas arent really high-tech or cutting-edge science, but simple logistics and management in conducting an expedition to Mars. With the space shuttle or the International Space Station (ISS), the crew can return to Earth rapidly in the event of a problem -- a crew en route to Mars is on their own.

"Its like the explorers, such as Lewis and Clark, where you take everything with you and live off the land," said William Roy of the logistics operations directorate at Kennedy Space Center (KSC).

NASA and Mars Society founder Robert Zubrins plans include producing fuel on Mars for the crews return to Earth.

About 200 researchers, contractors and NASA employees convened at the Moody Gardens convention center in Galveston, Texas for the three-day Human Space Transportation and Exploration 2000 workshop sponsored by Lockheed Martin and the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics.

Researchers made presentations on refining current mission profiles to Mars, producing rocket fuel there and using lunar water as a possible fuel source. Other topics at the conference centered more on developing reusable launch vehicles and space shuttle upgrades.

One panel discussion focused on capitalizing on the almost 40 years of human space exploration and how not to repeat previous mistakes.

Roy presented a paper on the logistics of a Mars expedition covering subjects such as equipment reliability and crew selection and training.

As part of his research, Roy studied U.S. Navy Arctic and Antarctic programs, along with nuclear submarines.

"We gained insight into their requirements for long-duration missions, which are similar to ours," he said. "We also evaluated lessons learned from the shuttle, Spacelab payloads and other lessons learned from on orbit maintenance."

One panel discussion focused on capitalizing on the almost 40 years of human space exploration and how not to repeat previous mistakes.

KSCs Mike ONeil focused on experiences with the space shuttle and how a spacecraft traveling to Mars must require less maintenance and perform more reliably. One plan calls for about 13 percent of the crews time used for housekeeping chores and maintenance. ONeil thinks thats too much time away from important work.

"We need to not have the crew worrying about routine operations. That needs to be done autonomously to free up their time to do science which is why theyre going there," he said.

Researchers are trying to develop systems that can diagnose themselves or are more reliable. One method discussed at the conference was using interchangeable parts between systems that can be switched or replaced easily without much effort or troubleshooting.