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Serina Diniega

and 4 more

Since 2001, the Mars Exploration Program Analysis Group (MEPAG) has maintained a document outlining community consensus priorities for scientific goals, objectives, and investigations for the robotic and human exploration of Mars [1]. This “Goals Document” is a living document that is revised regularly (~every few years) in light of new Mars science results. It is organized into a hierarchy of goals, objectives, and investigations. The four Goals are not prioritized and are organized around major areas of scientific knowledge: “Life”, “Climate”, “Geology”, and “Preparation for Human Exploration”. Don Banfield is the current MEPAG Goals Committee Chair, and he oversees 2-3 representatives per Goal [2]. The most recent round of revisions (2018) was prompted by discussion at the 6th International Mars Polar Science and Exploration Conference (held in 2016 in Reykjavik, Iceland [3]), which pointed out that current high-priority Polar Science and Present-Day Activity questions were not well represented in content or priorities within the 2015 Goals Document. Upon request from the MEPAG Executive and Goals Committees [2], specific areas of disconnect were highlighted by representatives of the Mars Polar Science community; these were evaluated by the Goals Committee who proposed changes at sub-objective and investigation levels within the Climate and Geology Goals. These proposed changes were open for comment by the larger Mars community for 6 weeks, and then finalized. The official MEPAG 2018 Goals Document will be presented at the meeting. Additionally, the presentation will describe plans for the next round of revisions, which are expected to primarily come out of the presentations and discussion at the 9th International Conference on Mars (to be held at Caltech, Pasadena, CA in July 2019 [4]), and which are expected to include reference to returned sample science. The 2019 MEPAG Goals Document will form an important input to the next Planetary Science Decadal Survey [5]. [1] https://mepag.jpl.nasa.gov/reports.cfm?expand=science [2] https://mepag.jpl.nasa.gov/about.cfm [3] https://www.hou.usra.edu/meetings/marspolar2016/ [4] https://www.hou.usra.edu/meetings/ninthmars2019/ [5] NASEM, 2017. CAPS: Getting Ready for the Next Planetary Science Decadal Survey. https://doi.org/10.17226/24843.