In the late 1940s, as the world was still reeling from the devastation of World War II, one man had his sights set on a far more distant horizon – the planet Mars. That man was Wernher von Braun, the brilliant German rocket scientist who would later become one of the key architects of the American space program. In 1948, while working for the U.S. Army at Fort Bliss in Texas, von Braun wrote a novel-length technical treatise called The Mars Project that laid out in great detail his vision for sending humans to the Red Planet.
Early Passion for Rocketry and Space Travel
Wernher von Braun was born in 1912 in what was then the German Empire. From a young age, he developed a keen interest in astronomy and the possibilities of space travel. As a teenager, he immersed himself in the works of pioneering rocket theorists like Hermann Oberth and Konstantin Tsiolkovsky. Von Braun studied mechanical engineering in Berlin and also joined an amateur rocket group, the Verein für Raumschiffahrt (VfR), or “Spaceflight Society.”
In 1932, the German army hired the 20-year-old von Braun to assist in developing liquid-fuel rockets. Over the next decade, von Braun would lead the army’s rocket research team, ultimately developing the infamous V-2 ballistic missile used by Nazi Germany against Allied targets during World War II. Though he later claimed to have been an unwilling participant, von Braun was in fact a member of the Nazi party and the SS. His involvement in the German war effort remains a source of historical controversy.
Coming to America and Envisioning Mars
After the war ended, von Braun and key members of his rocket team surrendered to American forces. As part of the secret Operation Paperclip, they were brought to the United States and installed at Fort Bliss to work on rocket technology for the U.S. Army. It was during this period that von Braun, in his spare time, wrote the manuscript for what would become The Mars Project.
First published in Germany in 1952 and then in an English translation in the U.S. in 1953, The Mars Project was a serious, scientifically grounded proposal for how to conduct the first human mission to Mars. In the book’s introduction, von Braun compared the technical challenge to that of the first Antarctic expeditions – requiring detailed planning, large teams, and complex logistics to be successful in a harsh and unforgiving environment.
An Enormous Scientific Expedition
The scale of von Braun’s envisioned Mars expedition was staggering. The mission would involve a fleet of 10 massive spacecraft – 7 for crew and 3 for cargo – carrying a total of 70 people to the Red Planet. The ships would be assembled in Earth orbit, requiring 950 launches of three-stage reusable rockets over 8 months. The spacecraft would use a nitric acid/hydrazine propellant that could be stored without refrigeration during the long journey.
Once ready, the flotilla would depart Earth orbit when Mars and Earth were properly aligned. The crew would be divided among the ships, with a skeleton crew remaining behind in Mars orbit while the rest descended to the surface in winged landers. Von Braun calculated the size and weight of each ship in the fleet and how much fuel they would require. He used celestial mechanics to plan out the trajectory and rocket burns needed to get to Mars and back.
Exploring the Red Planet
Upon reaching Mars, telescopes would be used to identify a suitable location near the equator to establish a base camp. A small crew would land at the Martian pole in a glider-like craft and use skis to touch down on the ice cap. They would then journey 4000 miles to the selected base camp site and construct a landing strip. The remaining landers would glide down to this airfield, bringing the rest of the expedition to the surface.
For their ground exploration, the crew would have tractors and crawlers to transport them across the Martian landscape. Von Braun envisioned the surface mission lasting 443 days, giving the team ample time to conduct scientific studies and collect samples before returning to the orbiting motherships. At the end of the ground mission, the landers would serve as ascent vehicles to carry the crew back to the main fleet for the long voyage home to Earth.
Assessing Challenges and Unknowns
In his technical descriptions, von Braun addressed many of the challenges that a Mars mission would face. He noted the threat posed by solar radiation and contemplated whether prolonged exposure to zero gravity would adversely affect the crew’s health. To counter this, he proposed spinning the ships to generate artificial gravity or having “gravity cells” the crew would visit each day.
Von Braun also acknowledged the difficulties of interplanetary navigation in an era before satellites and space probes. He assumed the crew would have to take star sightings during the flight to calculate course corrections. To account for this and other contingencies, von Braun allocated a substantial reserve of fuel and supplies.
Some aspects of The Mars Project reflect the limited knowledge of the 1940s. Von Braun depicted Mars as having a relatively thick atmosphere and speculated about the presence of plant life on its surface. He did not foresee the equipment that would be needed to deal with the extreme cold and thin carbon dioxide atmosphere that we now know Mars actually has.
Popularizing Space Exploration
While von Braun’s Mars expedition never left the realm of imagination, The Mars Project played an important role in popularizing the idea of human spaceflight and interplanetary travel. In the 1950s, von Braun collaborated with magazines like Collier’s to publish a series of articles detailing his vision for space exploration, heavily illustrated with paintings by space artist Chesley Bonestell. These articles, along with books and TV appearances by von Braun, helped inspire public enthusiasm for spaceflight.
Von Braun would go on to become a key figure in the American space program, serving as the first director of NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center. He was the chief architect of the Saturn V rocket that sent Apollo astronauts to the Moon in the 1960s and early 70s. While he didn’t live to see humans walk on Mars, von Braun’s early concepts and lifelong advocacy helped pave the way for continued Mars exploration.
Enduring Relevance and Influence
Many of the basic ideas in The Mars Project remain relevant to modern thinking about crewed Mars missions. The book anticipated the need for international collaboration and the in-space assembly of interplanetary ships, as well as the importance of redundant systems and propellant reserves. While our knowledge of Mars has greatly expanded and available technologies have advanced, the immense scale of the challenge von Braun outlined still holds true.
More than 70 years after it was first conceived, The Mars Project stands as a testament to the power of von Braun’s vision and the enduring human drive to explore the solar system. With NASA and other space agencies actively planning for crewed missions to the Red Planet in the coming decades, we may finally see something like von Braun’s grand expedition become a reality. When the first astronauts do leave their historic footprints on Martian sands, they will be following a path first charted by a dreamer with a slide rule and a passion for turning science fiction into fact.
