The spacecraft which will take people to Mars will have a massively increased living space as mission lengths shift to years rather than weeks, one of NASA's directors said.
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And the goal to land humans on Mars in the 2030s can occur without any notable boost to the famous space agency's budget.
Jason Crusan, who will be speaking in Canberra next month, is director of the NASA division responsible for advanced exploration systems, the technology which will lead to new flight capabilities and the newest spacecraft for human use.
He said the days of metal dominating spacecraft could be over, just as the synthetic fibre Kevlar had proven more flexible and stronger than aluminium.
"What has advanced is the ability for fabric structures to be used instead of metallic structures," he said. "It may allow us to have significantly larger habitats."
The planned habitats, or space ships, could be 300 to 400 cubic metres in size, in contrast to the Apollo capsule living spaces of about 15 cubic metres, he said.
The space will make life easier for an astronaut who has to commit anywhere between one to three years for a return trip to Mars.
For now, the smaller Orion capsule is being built, and is scheduled to be put on a rocket and blasted into space – without humans aboard – in November 2018. After travelling past the moon and returning, astronauts will then get in and travel further than humans have ever done before.
"I do believe by the end of the 2020s we will have a habitat with engines that we could go to Mars in, then in the 2030s the first initial landings," he said.
"And we can do that with the budgets we have with reasonable increases with inflation."
In contrast, NASA's budgets increased by nearly 500 per cent between 1961, when the moon landing plan was announced, and 1969.
Mr Crusan, based in Washington DC, is in charge of 600 staff or contractors and up to 30 projects centred on technology, engineering and flight development.
He was previously part of the Miniature Radio Frequency Program which flew two radar instruments to the moon to map the lunar poles late last decade, finding significant amounts of water in ice form. Finding water's location was crucial to allow humans to live on another planet, he said.
The father of two was in Australia in March for a family vacation, travelling through parts of Queensland and the Northern Territory as well as Sydney. He said a society that did not explore would not advance.
"When we stop exploring it's almost like we've stopped being human," he said.
Ray Martin will host National Geographic's Mars: The Live Experience, featuring Buzz Aldrin, Mr Crusan and a professor from the European Space Agency on November 7 at Llewellyn Hall in Canberra.
