Project Frontier

The Frontier program was conceived in the private sector, largely through Elon Musk and SpaceX, with the goal of human colonization of Mars. While the Dragon capsule could only support seven astronauts on a limited Earth orbital mission, what would become Ares Lander would carry up to 100 astronauts. Possible missions included ferrying crews to a Phobos station, Martian flyby, and eventual manned Mars landings. Meanwhile, NASA's funding for a super-heavy lifter stalled while scientific and astrodynamic data for a Mars mission far outweighed the work done in the private sector. Public-private partnerships had been reached for space station resupply, but as political pressure built, the alliance between NASA and the private sector became more formalized for a Mars mission.

In January 2016, SpaceX CEO Elon Musk announced the SpaceX Mars Colony project to industry representatives at a series of space advocacy and industry conferences. Preliminary specifications were laid out for a spacecraft capable of carrying upwards of 100 individuals to Mars, and a reusable new super-heavy lifter. By August, over two dozen corporations had been formed to organize mining and infrastructure projects on Mars, and RedWorks had produced its first prototype regolith printer for habitat construction. Meanwhile, NASA performed its own in-house spacecraft design studies to determine the viability of the private sector missions.

The Mars Exploration Vessel was the large mothership spacecraft, designed to carry three Ares landers from Earth orbit to Mars and back to Earth orbit in a continuous cycle. It was the only component of the early Frontier spacecraft to be constructed largely off-Earth in the newly built Tycho Shipyards. Its exterior was composed of a lunar-forged stainless steel, and was propelled and powered by the most advanced fusion power planet at the time. An ablative heat shield was positioned forward of the habitation and lander node, which let the MEV achieve aerobraking to conserve fuel. The ship was 352 ft (107.3 m), 31 feet (9.45 m) in diameter (at the propulsion stage), and weighed approximately 1500 tonnes.