Priority Science Objectives Enabled through NASA's Moon to Mars Architecture (ACR24 white paper)¶

Document: Priority Science Objectives Enabled through NASA's Moon to Mars Architecture, a three-page white paper headed "2024 Moon to Mars Architecture" and footed "2024 Moon to Mars Architecture Concept Review". No date is printed beyond the year; the download path is 2024/12. Files: text sources/text/docs/2024-12-acr24-artemis-enables-priority-science.txt; raw sources/raw/docs/2024-12-acr24-artemis-enables-priority-science.pdf (fetched 2026-10-01T07:22:46Z from https://www.nasa.gov/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/acr24-artemis-enables-priority-science.pdf, per sources/manifest.csv). Page numbers: the printed numbers (1–3) match the PDF pages and the text file's [page N] markers. All three pages were checked against the PDF.

Which paper this is. NASA's White Papers web page lists it under "2024 Architecture Concept Review" with a shorter title, "Priority Science Enabled through Architecture": "Surveys landmark studies that inform NASA's science goals and how the Artemis program is realizing those goals" (White Papers page, fetched 2026-10-01). The file name is acr24-artemis-enables-priority-science. It cites the ADD only by its web page (reference 4), not by revision. It is 2024 context, older than ADD Rev C.

Summary. The paper is about lunar planetary science, despite its title: "This white paper focuses on the current implementation plan for the OWL strategy", the 2023–2032 planetary science decadal survey (p. 1). It names six "primary lunar science challenges", each tied to objective LPS-1, LPS-2 or LPS-3 (Table 1). Three are "architecture-dependent", meaning "they require specific architectural functions or elements to conduct scientific investigations that attain specific data" (p. 2), and the paper lists what each needs: long-distance roving, large cargo sample return, global access, long-lived surface assets, far-side communications, cryogenic freezers, access to permanently shadowed regions. Its claim: "NASA's Moon to Mars Architecture can enable all six of these science challenges through a mixture of robotic and human capabilities" (p. 2). The content is on Utilization Systems.

Contents¶

Page	Section	Wiki home
1	Introduction (the objective-based approach and its documents); Science Implementation Strategy (SMD's draft implementation plan); Science Implementation Challenges; Table 1	Utilization Systems
2	Architecture-Dependent Challenges (South Pole-Aitken Basin Sample Return, Lunar Geophysical Network, Cryogenic Volatile Sample Return); Progressive Exploration Challenges; Architecture Enables Science; Conclusion	same
3	Key Takeaways; References 1–14	this page

What the PDF shows that the text layer loses¶

Table 1 (p. 1), "Six primary lunar science challenges." The text layer keeps the cells but splits them over separate lines. As printed:

#	Lunar Science Challenges	Associated Lunar/Planetary Science (LPS) Objective(s)
1	South Pole-Aitken Basin Sample Return	LPS-1, LPS-2
2	Lunar Geophysical Network	LPS-1, LPS-2
3	Cryogenic Volatile Sample Return	LPS-3
4	Lunar Chronology	LPS-1, LPS-2
5	Lunar Formation and Evolution	LPS-1, LPS-2
6	Lunar Volatiles	LPS-3

Reading order on p. 2. One sentence runs from the foot of the left column to the top of the right: "As noted in appendix C of NASA's Moon to Mars Strategy and Objectives Development document (page 46), each science objective may be further decomposed down to strategic research topics and specific investigations." The text layer puts the second half first (line 154 of the text file) and the first half after the Conclusion (line 201).
Emphasis. Bold in the PDF: "NASA has implemented an objective-based approach to address high-priority and high-impact science questions" and "United under the architecture framework, NASA and its partners can realize a safe and sustained campaign of robotic and human exploration that reveals the secrets of the universe for the benefit of all" (p. 1).

Key takeaways (p. 3)¶

"NASA's robotic and crewed architectures are essential to addressing the scientific community-derived priority science objectives."
"NASA's science priorities are established by a variety of sources, including the Moon to Mars Objectives and decadal surveys by the National Academies."
"The Science Mission Directorate will produce an overall Artemis strategy document that includes science strategies for all directorate-specific science disciplines, as well as science defined by the Human Research Program."
"The specific needs of scientific investigations contributing to NASA's science goals drive architecture definition efforts."

What changed by Rev C¶

These comparisons are the wiki's. The paper predates Rev C.

The science-to-architecture mapping is still to come. The paper says SMD's implementation plan is "currently in draft" and that SMD "plans to produce an additional document" for the other science disciplines and the Human Research Program (p. 1). Rev C says "NASA will formalize how science payloads map to Moon to Mars science objectives and point to reference locations as part of the next revision of the Architecture Definition Document" (ADD Rev C, p. 69). Rev C doesn't mention the SMD plan (search of its text for "Lunar Science Strategy").
Non-polar sites became a reference mission. The paper: "missions to non-polar destinations will allow science to address objectives that need global access" (p. 2). Rev C's Foundational Exploration segment has a "Non-polar Lunar Sortie" reference mission: "several objectives — particularly those related to science and utilization — could require landing sites beyond the South Pole" (ADD Rev C, p. 30; Foundational Exploration). Rev C doesn't cite the paper there.
Frozen samples are in the lists. Rev C's own example of the Utilization Systems sub-architecture is "the return of a frozen lunar surface sample" (ADD Rev C, p. 44), and the lunar use cases include returning "frozen samples" in 10s and 100s of kg (UC-T-305 L, UC-T-306 L), both traced to gap #1201 (Lunar use cases). The paper's word is "cryogenic"; #1201 distinguishes "refrigerated, frozen, and cryogenic" storage, so the wiki doesn't treat the two words as the same.
The far side and long-lived payloads are in the lists. The Lunar Geophysical Network needs "communications and data transfer to both the near and far sides of the Moon" and "long-lived surface assets" (p. 2). Rev C's lunar use cases include PNT "at the far side of the lunar surface" (UC-C-206 L) and payloads "with long-term remote operation" related to "Impact Chronology", "Geologic Processes" and "Solar System Volatiles" (UC-U-701 L to UC-U-704 L) (Lunar use cases). No source pairs the two.
The elements named are all in Rev C: CLPS, the Lunar Terrain Vehicle (as one of the "uncrewed human-rated platforms"), the Pressurized Rover and "the initial surface habitat element" (p. 2). Rev C's LTV description already includes "uncrewed science operations" (LTV).
Objective codes. The paper writes "LPS-1", "LPS-2", "LPS-3". The December 2025 lunar decomposition codes the first three LPS objectives LPS-01 LM to LPS-03 LM (Lunar objectives). Reading the short codes as those three is the wiki's.

References that are other architecture documents¶

The paper cites 14 references (p. 3). As printed:

Ref.	Title, as printed	Among the wiki's sources?
1	NASA's Moon to Mars Strategy and Objectives Development Document	yes, Strategy and Objectives Development (2023) (same file name in the link). Its "page 46" is a printed number: Appendix C starts on PDF p. 47. See Science objectives and the decadal surveys
2	Moon to Mars Objectives	yes, Moon to Mars Objectives (2022) (same file name in the link)
4	NASA Architecture Definition Document	the ADD documents web page, source page

The others: NASA's decadal surveys page; SMD's "Implementation Plan for a NASA Integrated Lunar Science Strategy in the Artemis Era" (a draft); the planetary science decadal Origins, Worlds, and Life (OWL); The Scientific Context for Exploration of the Moon; the Lunar Exploration Analysis Group's Advancing Science of the Moon; the Endurance mission concept study report; the Lunar Geophysical Network final report; and NASA's New Frontiers, CLPS, LTV and Pressurized Rover pages. None is in sources/manifest.csv or sources/text/pages/ by name.

Oddities¶

As printed, PDF checked:

"the Mars Strategy and Objectives Development document" (p. 1), for the document the rest of the paper calls "NASA's Moon to Mars Strategy and Objectives Development document" (pp. 1, 2; reference 1).
Three titles. "Priority Science Objectives Enabled through NASA's Moon to Mars Architecture" on the paper, "Priority Science Enabled through Architecture" on NASA's White Papers page, and artemis-enables-priority-science in the file name.

Utilization Systems · Humans in Space to Accomplish Science Objectives · Objectives: the ten goals · Lunar objectives · #1201 In-Situ Sample Storage and Processing · Foundational Exploration · CLPS · Lunar Terrain Vehicle · Pressurized Rover