2025 Mars Objective Decomposition (spreadsheet)¶

Document: 2025 Mars Objective Decomposition, a 7-sheet Excel workbook published by NASA with ADD Rev C. No version number or date is printed in the data. The download path (/2025/12/) dates it to December 2025. ADD Rev C points to it as B.1.2 "Mars Objective Decomposition", a link to NASA's architecture documents page (ADD Rev C, p. 109), and says the decomposition can be read in "the tables in Appendix B or the spreadsheets published concurrently with this document" (p. 17). Files: text sources/text/docs/2025-12-2025-mars-objective-decomposition/ (one CSV per sheet); raw sources/raw/docs/2025-12-2025-mars-objective-decomposition.xlsx (fetched 2026-10-01T07:22:47Z from https://www.nasa.gov/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/2025-mars-objective-decomposition.xlsx, 7 sheets, per sources/manifest.csv). The workbook itself was not opened; everything below is read from the extracted CSVs.

Summary. The Mars counterpart of the lunar decomposition spreadsheet, and simpler. It traces 46 objectives to 148 Mars use cases, and each use case to the 263 Mars functions that perform it. Unlike the lunar workbook it has one decomposition, not an "HLR" and an "FE+" version, and no allocation of functions to assets or elements. Its use-case and function lists match ADD Rev C Appendix B.2.3 and B.2.4 by ID, order and title (the wiki's check). The 46 objectives are every LM objective (36) and every M objective (10), so the lunar and Mars workbooks together cover all 63 objectives.

The wiki writes it up on Mars use cases (use cases and the functions under each), Mars functions (functions and the use cases each serves) and Mars objectives (objectives and their use cases).

How to cite¶

Cite by sheet name and row ID, as for the lunar workbook: ([Mars decomposition, "Functions to Use Cases", UC-T-108 M](../sources/2025-12-2025-mars-objective-decomposition.md)). The sheet names are those in the key's "Index of Worksheets", which match the CSV file names.

The sheets¶

The key's "Index of Worksheets" lists ten sheet names. The file has seven sheets (manifest): the key and six of the listed sheets.

CSV file	Name in the key's index	What it holds	Data rows
`key.csv`	(the key)	The index of worksheets; the 12 decomposition letters; the named groups within each letter
`full-decomp-split.csv`	Full Decomp - Split	The whole chain, function → use case → objective, every cell filled	1,468
`full-decomp-merged.csv`	Full Decomp - Merged	The same chain, with repeated cells left empty; 46 objective codes	1,309
`functions.csv`	Functions	ID and title	263
`use-cases.csv`	Use Cases	ID and title	148
`functions-to-use-cases.csv`	Functions to Use Cases	Use case, with the functions under it	483
`use-cases-to-objectives.csv`	Use Cases to Objectives	Objective (wording and code), with the use cases under it	376

Row counts exclude the two header rows; they are the wiki's counts of the CSV lines.

Listed in the key's index but not in the file (four):

Full Decomp - Merged No CNs
C&Ns
Use Cases to C&Ns
C&Ns to Objectives

These are the same "C&Ns" (characteristics and needs) sheets the lunar workbook lacks (open question 42). As there, the published sheets map use cases straight to objectives. The ADD says the Mars layer existed in Revision B: "Added Mars characteristics, needs, use cases, and functions for Transportation and Habitation, Mars Infrastructure, and Operations objectives" (ADD Rev C, p. 4). The 2024 Mars Objective Mapping Tables have that layer: 115 Mars C&Ns, mapped to the same 46 objectives and to 113 use cases (2024 Mars table; the C&Ns are on Mars characteristics and needs). In 2024 only the Transportation and Habitation, Mars Infrastructure and Operations objectives were decomposed to use cases. The 2024 page lists what changed by this workbook: 39 use cases and 52 functions added, 4 and 7 dropped.

No allocation sheet. The key's index lists no allocation or asset sheet, so none is missing. The lunar workbook has two, headed "FORWARD WORK" (Lunar function allocation). The ADD says the mapping of Humans to Mars functions to elements is still to come (Humans to Mars).

Columns and conventions¶

The same as the lunar workbook's (conventions):

Columns "Functions", "FN ID", "Use Cases", "UC ID", "Objectives", "OBJ ID". In the two mapping sheets and the merged sheet, a parent's cells are filled on its first row only.
"BLANK". Where a use case has no function, the function cells read "BLANK": 11 use cases (Mars use cases). Where an objective has no use case, the use-case cells read "BLANK": six objectives, SE-01 LM, SE-02 LM, SE-05 LM, AS-02 LM, AS-04 LM and AS-05 LM (Mars objectives).
Split and merged sheets differ in length (1,468 against 1,309 rows), as in the lunar workbook, and the split sheet doesn't follow the mapping sheets' order (in LPS-01 LM it goes from UC-T-102 M straight to UC-M-301 M). The wiki builds its pages from the two mapping sheets, "Functions to Use Cases" and "Use Cases to Objectives", and checked only the full sheets' row counts and objective count.

The key¶

The Mars key is the lunar key: the same 12 letters, numbered 1 (Transportation, T) to 12 (Utilization, U), the same "FOR REFERENCE ONLY" cell, and the same named groups by hundreds, typos included ("Logisitcs Transfer", "Cargo Repositioining"). The table is on the lunar source page. The comparison is the wiki's, line by line.

Mars IDs outside the key's groups (the wiki's check against the lists):

G 400 and G 500. The key's G groups are 100 Launch Services, 200 Recovery and 300 Astronaut Ground Training. The Mars lists also use 400, for servicing, inspection and anomaly handling (UC-G-401 M, UC-G-402 M, FN-G-401 M to FN-G-413 M), and 500, for off-nominal response and contamination control (UC-G-501 M, UC-G-502 M, FN-G-501 M).
C 300. The key's C groups are 100 Communication and 200 PNT. The Mars lists use 300 for command and control and uncrewed modes (UC-C-301 M to UC-C-303 M, FN-C-301 M to FN-C-310 M).
Neither 400/500 under G nor 300 under C occurs in the lunar lists (searched).
That is 7 use cases and 24 functions in groups the key doesn't name.
The 2024 Mars key names all three: G 400 "Asset Health Management", G 500 "Contingency (Miscellaneous)" and C 300 "Command & Control" (2024 Mars table). So this workbook's key is the lunar key in place of the Mars key published in 2024.

Other mismatches between titles and group names, such as UC-H-201 M (crew training) in H 200 "Uncrewed", are noted on Mars use cases.

Compared with ADD Rev C, Appendix B.2.3 and B.2.4¶

The wiki compared both lists with the ADD (pp. 127–147): the text layer of every page, by eye, and the rendered PDF of pp. 130–134, 137–139, 141, 145 and 147, where the text layer separates IDs from their titles.

Use cases: the same 148 IDs in the same order, including UC-U-713 M printed before UC-U-712 M, with the same titles.
Functions: the same 263 IDs in the same order, including FN-X-201 M and FN-X-202 M printed before FN-X-113 M, with the same titles.
Shared slips. The sheet and the ADD print the same oddities: "continency" (FN-A-109 M), "in space as (demonstration)" (FN-A-113 M, FN-A-114 M), "payloads(s)" (FN-P-401 M), "Martian vicinity" (FN-T-312 M; elsewhere "Mars vicinity"), "surface-born resources" (UC-I-201 M) and "presence of Earth life on at various distances from landing sites the Martian surface" (UC-U-808 M).
No print differences found, unlike the lunar workbook's "maintaing". The text layer's "Earthbased" (FN-C-303 M) and "longterm" (FN-I-106 M) are line-break artifacts; the PDF and the sheet have the hyphen.

Compared with the other sources¶

Objectives. All 46 codes carry the 2022 suffixes. The wording of the 35 LM objectives shared with the lunar workbook matches the lunar sheet's, and the 11 others (ten M plus AS-02 LM) match the 2022 wording on the objectives index. Both are the wiki's checks by eye.
Tech gaps. 59 of the 148 Mars use cases are cited by a tech gap, and 40 of the 263 functions are named by one (Mars use cases, Mars functions). Three gap pairings are not in the sheet, and three use cases that a gap lists with no function have functions in the sheet (below).
#1107. The sheet puts FN-U-501 M to FN-U-504 M all under UC-U-501 M. So both pairings in open question 37, the sheet's FN-U-502 M and the ADD's FN-U-501 M, are pairings the decomposition makes. That doesn't say which one the gap means.

Things to know when using it¶

No elements. Nothing in the workbook says which element or asset performs a Mars function.
Gap pairings the sheet doesn't make (the wiki's check of every Mars pair in the tech-gap sheet; ADD Appendix D prints the same pairs):
- #0202 pairs UC-A-403 M with FN-A-402 M. The sheet puts FN-A-402 M under UC-A-404 M only; UC-A-403 M has FN-G-401 M, FN-G-407 M and FN-A-401 M.
- #0401 to #0404 pair UC-X-101 M with FN-X-101 M, and UC-X-102 M with FN-X-102 M. The sheet puts neither function under those use cases. It puts FN-X-101 M under UC-H-102 M, UC-H-104 M, UC-X-105 M and UC-X-107 M, and FN-X-102 M under UC-H-103 M, UC-H-105 M, UC-X-106 M and UC-X-108 M.
- #0308 lists UC-X-105 M, UC-X-106 M and UC-X-109 M with no function. The sheet gives each of them two. This is the Mars counterpart of #0307's lunar case (open question 43).
- All other Mars pairs in the gap sheet are in the decomposition. Recorded in open question 60.
"Special regions". Six Mars use cases and six functions distinguish "special regions" from "non-special regions" (UC-U-103 M, UC-U-104 M, UC-U-301 M to UC-U-305 M; FN-U-110 M, FN-U-111 M, FN-U-301 M, FN-U-303 M, FN-U-306 M, FN-U-309 M). Neither the workbook nor the ADD defines the term (ADD searched), and the ADD's glossary has no entry (Glossary). The planetary protection white paper speaks of "regions with special planetary restrictions" (Planetary protection). The wiki doesn't define it (open question 61).
Lunar and Mars IDs are numbered independently (ADD p. 109). FN-T-101 M is not the Mars version of FN-T-101 L.

Mars use cases · Mars functions · Mars objectives · Mars characteristics and needs · 2024 Mars table · Objectives: the ten goals · Use cases and functions · Humans to Mars · Lunar decomposition spreadsheet · ADD Rev C source page · Tech gaps spreadsheet · Gaps index