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Mars Focus Group
Chair: David Des Marais
The Mars Focus Group (MFG) was established to provide a forum within the NAI to identify important scientific goals, objectives and investigations for the astrobiological exploration of Mars, and to help define mission priorities, measurement requirements and new technology developments needed to support Mars Astrobiology. Membership of the NAI Mars Focus Group grew to >100 participants, representing a broad array of scientific disciplines within Astrobiology. Scientists outside of the NAI have been encouraged to attend Mars Focus Group meetings to help identify crucial programmatic recommendations for the astrobiological exploration of Mars. The Mars Focus Group meets a critical need within NASA, and the broader Mars science community, by providing scientific input and recommendations to Mars program planners to ensure proper implementation of astrobiologically-relevant Mars missions. Results of previous site reviews and discussion summaries have been archived on an NAI Mars Focus Group node of Arizona State University ‘s Astrobiology Program website (http://astrobiology.asu.edu). The NAI Mars Focus Group has also supported site selection related web archiving activities by the Center for Mars Exploration (CMEX), based at NASA Ames.
