There was some fuss in a thread below about proposed 1950s Mars Missions, and what they involved, and how practical they were. Given the knowledge of Mars in 1950, I think we can forgive them a few errors on the nature of Mars.
I have not done exhaustive research on this--about twenty minutes--but there seems to have been two main types of proposed 1950s Mars Mission, with illustrations by Chesley Bonestell.
One, the original Von Braun concept, had a fleet of ships with the big winged landers, which was described in the Colliers magazine.
Note the ships in this Colliers cover. There are a lot more than three in this rather improbable formation, possibly as many as 10:
A winged lander on site, with its return section already set up:
This mission was modified and changed over a number of years. A later version had only three ships, which may be a cause of some of the confusion.
There was a much different mission, associated with a Disney project, with large, delicate mushroom-shaped nuclear powered ion vessels, using rocket landers.
The lander is shown here, though the link is unreliable:
I wish I could have found a shot of the beautiful spaceships gliding through space.
For a LOT more information on this kind of thing...in fact, you may never be seen outdoors again...see here.
This article was particularly fascinating. Any volunteers?
1950s Mars Missions
The whole thread (29 posts)
- 1950s Mars Missions
- The illusions of Mars
- !***Care to try for 40's? The inside scoop.***!
- Re: 1950s Mars Missions