( I promised myself that I wouldn't do this particular topic until I finished my extended essay, which was all about Mars. Incidentally, von Braun gets a single sentence mention in the final version, so I suppose it wouldn't have had such an effect, but I still made sure I finished it.)
The man known as Wernher Magnus Maximilian, Freiherr von Braun has a polarizing reaction amongst people. Some see him as a visionary whose innovative rocket, the Saturn family, helped put a human on moon, an achievement that has essentially suppressed any other in human history. Others see him as a Nazi ideologue, whose V-2 rockets killed thousands of slaves making it, and whose crimes were covered up by the US to allow him to work on the rockets. I myself have a mixed opinion on him. On the one hand, he did meet higher ups in the Nazi government, and despite his claim, he probably did know about the horrid conditions at Mettelwerk (the factory where the V-2 was made). Isaac Asimov once expressed horror that he had shaken a hand that shook Adolph Hitler's hand, and I sympathize. On the other hand, could he actually have done anything about it? Remember that the Nazi government was ruthless, and von Braun's job could be held by anyone else, so he couldn't complain, or he might be killed, at best. If you were in that position, would you ever complain? Further, I don't think he worked for the government willingly. If the communist won in Germany during the early 1930's, rather than the Nazis , he'd likely work for them to get funding for rocketry.
If you don't know, Werhner von Braun was a German rocket scientist who created the V-2 rocket in 1942, and then, was brought to the US at the end of World War II, to work on their missile program. After the 1957 launch of Sputnik, and the failure of the Navy's attempted space program, von Braun and his fellow rocket engineers were recruited to work for NASA. There, he built the Jupiter and Saturn family of rockets, the latter of which was used in the Apollo program, However, I'm here to talk about something a little more fanciful. Between his arrival in the United States, and the 1958 founding of NASA, von Braun, and several other German expatriate scientists tried to promote the idea of Space exploration to the American populace. Their first attempt was in the magazine Collier's, in the popular column "MAN WILL CONQUER SPACE SOON." These ideas were also translated into three episodes of Disney's "Tomorrowland" in 1955-1957. This proposed an optimistic view of a future, where man has managed to have a strong Space based infrastructure. This vision of the future had influenced many future visions of Space exploration, and even a school of space advocacy has been named"von Braunist" if it supports a government funded missions available to few at first (the other two are the "O'Neill" after Princeton experimental physicist Gerard K. O'Neill, and the "Sagan" after science popularizer Carl Sagan.). One of many concepts for the exploration of Space was a manned Mars mission. von Braun first detailed his plans in a 1948 science fiction novel (later published as Project Mars: a Technical Tale. When that was rejected, he instead posted a more straight-forward speculation in Das Marsprojkect (The Mars Project) in 1953. Later, he worked with science writer Wily Ley and illustrator Chesley Bonestall to write an even more refined version in 1956, under the name The Exploration of Mars. This mission is fascinating, to say the very least.
The man known as Wernher Magnus Maximilian, Freiherr von Braun has a polarizing reaction amongst people. Some see him as a visionary whose innovative rocket, the Saturn family, helped put a human on moon, an achievement that has essentially suppressed any other in human history. Others see him as a Nazi ideologue, whose V-2 rockets killed thousands of slaves making it, and whose crimes were covered up by the US to allow him to work on the rockets. I myself have a mixed opinion on him. On the one hand, he did meet higher ups in the Nazi government, and despite his claim, he probably did know about the horrid conditions at Mettelwerk (the factory where the V-2 was made). Isaac Asimov once expressed horror that he had shaken a hand that shook Adolph Hitler's hand, and I sympathize. On the other hand, could he actually have done anything about it? Remember that the Nazi government was ruthless, and von Braun's job could be held by anyone else, so he couldn't complain, or he might be killed, at best. If you were in that position, would you ever complain? Further, I don't think he worked for the government willingly. If the communist won in Germany during the early 1930's, rather than the Nazis , he'd likely work for them to get funding for rocketry.
If you don't know, Werhner von Braun was a German rocket scientist who created the V-2 rocket in 1942, and then, was brought to the US at the end of World War II, to work on their missile program. After the 1957 launch of Sputnik, and the failure of the Navy's attempted space program, von Braun and his fellow rocket engineers were recruited to work for NASA. There, he built the Jupiter and Saturn family of rockets, the latter of which was used in the Apollo program, However, I'm here to talk about something a little more fanciful. Between his arrival in the United States, and the 1958 founding of NASA, von Braun, and several other German expatriate scientists tried to promote the idea of Space exploration to the American populace. Their first attempt was in the magazine Collier's, in the popular column "MAN WILL CONQUER SPACE SOON." These ideas were also translated into three episodes of Disney's "Tomorrowland" in 1955-1957. This proposed an optimistic view of a future, where man has managed to have a strong Space based infrastructure. This vision of the future had influenced many future visions of Space exploration, and even a school of space advocacy has been named"von Braunist" if it supports a government funded missions available to few at first (the other two are the "O'Neill" after Princeton experimental physicist Gerard K. O'Neill, and the "Sagan" after science popularizer Carl Sagan.). One of many concepts for the exploration of Space was a manned Mars mission. von Braun first detailed his plans in a 1948 science fiction novel (later published as Project Mars: a Technical Tale. When that was rejected, he instead posted a more straight-forward speculation in Das Marsprojkect (The Mars Project) in 1953. Later, he worked with science writer Wily Ley and illustrator Chesley Bonestall to write an even more refined version in 1956, under the name The Exploration of Mars. This mission is fascinating, to say the very least.
Von Braun's primary objectives was to create a mission using the technology at the time. Despite this, there was also a small number of objectives that needed to be achieved. A manned space station was established. After
that event happened, a circumnavigation of the moon would occur, and a manned
mission would occur. There was also the
assumption that nuclear powered rockets were to be available for the Mars
mission. That said, they also noted that chemical rockets would still be in
use. The mission to Mars itself included 70 men and ten ships. These ships would be assembled in Earth’s orbit. A fleet of 46 reusable vehicles would bring 25 tons of cargo (plus 14.5 tons of propellant for the Mars mission) to assemble these ships. 950 launches were needed to assemble this flotilla. Once completed in orbit, each of the ten ship would weigh 3720 tons. ) This fleet would have seven passenger ships, and 3 cargo ships. In the cargo ship, there is a 250 ton lander and supplies for the Mars missions. They would launch from Earth orbit, use the “minimum-energy transfer between circular orbits is an elliptical trajectory called the Hohmann trajectory” begin a 260 day journey to Mars. They would use a propellant of nitric acid and hydrazine. Once they arrive, they ease themselves into orbit, and begin to survey for a landing spot. Once they find one, they send their first glider to the surface. The glider heads to the poles, and deploys skis to land. After landing, the crew on that lander would proceed to travel to the equator, where they would set up a base and landing strip for two other landers. Two landers with the remaining crew would arrive, and the reunited crew would set up living quarters, and beginning a 400 day stay on the planet. After that, the crew will leave on two ascent vehicles, where they will return to the seven passenger ships. The ships will return to Earth orbit, and crash back to the planet. The mission would 963 days (260 days for going to and returning from Mars, and staying 400 days on the planet.) The Launch date was in 1965, though after a space station and a moon base were established. In Exploration, the mission was scaled down slightly to two ships with twelve men. 963 days were required for the trip in the original plan, 969 in the later version. A variation on aspects of the plan appeared in Conquest of Space.
Could any of this actually work? (snorts) It is greatly grandiose in both scale and cost. This plan will definitely not work in any sort of capacity today. However, one must admire the engineering demonstrated. Von Braun was able to create the first detailed exploration of a manned Mars mission using only modern technology. It was also the first study into what a Mars mission would require, later becoming the prototype to many Mars missions to come. The idea that modern technology could allow for a Martian mission would be used in many other mission concepts, such as Mars Direct.
Sources:
Wernher von Braun’s Martian Chronicles
http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/wernher-von-brauns-martian-chronicles-9845747/
Encyclopedia Astronautica- Entry: Von Braun Mars Project:
http://www.astronautix.com/craft/vonn1952.htm
3The Exploration of Mars/ Wernher Von Braun, Willey Ley, with illustrations by Chesley Bonestall
New York; Viking Press, 1960
3Horizons: The Newsletter of AIAA Houston Section: The American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, September/October 2013 issue
http://www.aiaahouston.org/Horizons/Horizons_2013_09_and_10.pdf
Sources:
Wernher von Braun’s Martian Chronicles
http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/wernher-von-brauns-martian-chronicles-9845747/
Encyclopedia Astronautica- Entry: Von Braun Mars Project:
http://www.astronautix.com/craft/vonn1952.htm
3The Exploration of Mars/ Wernher Von Braun, Willey Ley, with illustrations by Chesley Bonestall
New York; Viking Press, 1960
3Horizons: The Newsletter of AIAA Houston Section: The American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, September/October 2013 issue
http://www.aiaahouston.org/Horizons/Horizons_2013_09_and_10.pdf
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