Advanced Human Support Technologies Program: Providing Support to Humans for Future Space Exploration Missions

NASA has formulated a strategic plan with five major strategic enterprises: Aeronautics, Space Science, Technology, Mission to Planet Earth, and the Human Exploration and Development of Space (HEDS). Many strategic goals and objectives exist within HEDS in order to allow humans to effectively explore and develop space. Among the foremost of these goals and objectives is providing for the support of humans in their exploration of the cosmos. Future long-term exploration missions will need advanced technologies to recycle and optimize resources, monitor the characteristics of their enclosed environment, and optimize human performance. NASA has created the HEDS Advanced Human Support Technologies (HAHST) program in order to meet these challenges. This paper lays out the major missions, goals and objectives of the HAHST program, which promises to deliver many critical human support technologies over the next two decades.