Hi Tom,

While the Collier's articles get all the press about being the first to get the ball rolling - this is actually inaccurate.

I have in my collection the August 1946 issue of Coronet magazine. (which was sort of a cross between readers digest and life magazine and digest sized)

An article "By Rocket to Mars in 18 days" with 9 Chesley Bonestell pictures to accompany the text is the first of this kind I have been able to locate and precedes the Colliers series by about six years.

Interesting is that the article has 'no author' officially and only credits the inspiring Bonestell art. Yet clearly someone DID author it and was a space expert.

I believe von Braun WAS the author and he wrote it while in detention - but since the war had JUST finished seeing a NAZI write a space article may have been unwelcome in such a patriotic all-american type magazine.

As I doubt many of these still exist for anyone to get a copy, and Coronet is out of business for three decades - I will transcibe the article in its totality here for all to enjoy:
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By Rocket to MARS in 18 Days

With the development of atomic power, man's dream of flight to the outer planet's may well be realized in our lifetime. To portray such a flight, Coronet brings you the scientifically accurate paintings of Chesley Bonestell, artist and astronomer, and takes you on the thrilling adventure of man's first trip to Mars.

It is 1986. Your atom-powered rocket ship roars up from the earth. Looking through your observation window you see the lights of New York 25 miles below. Beyond lie the infinite mysteries of space...

(PAINTING OF NEW YORK LIGHTS 25 MILES UP AND EARTHS DISTANT HORIZON CURVATURE SEEN THROUGH PORTHOLE)

The Challenge of Beckoning Space

The boundless space beyond the earth is man's last frontier, a challenge to his daring and ingenuity. You are moving forward to meet that challenge, hurtling more than 36 million hazardous miles to reach Mars. Soaring from the rocket field in New York and cruising due east, you have circled the earth once, flying higher and higher, gaining momentum to overcome the gravitational pull of the earth, which strains with tremendous force to hold you back. Now hundreds of miles below you is the shimmering network of the Great Lakes. The bright dot to your right near the bottom of the window is Chicago by night at the southern tip of Lake Michigan. 2,250 miles away, beyond the wide expanse of the Atlantic Ocean, the horizon stretches and curves in a luminous arc.

As the first passenger in a rocket bound for Mars, you are traveling at a speed so fast that you mind can scarcely grasp its meaning. You can only guess what lies ahead

(PAINTING GREAT LAKES 600 MILES UP- CHICAGO LIGHT - HORIZON)

Into the Realm of the Stars

Traveling many times faster than sound, you are now far enough from the earth to look back and see it hanging like a strange globe in space. The brilliant shaft which seems to bisect it is the zodiacal light, believed by astronomers to be caused by vast swarms of tiny meteors and dust particles revolving around the sun and reflecting its light. While you were still eart-bound you saw this light as a glow in the east before dawn or in the west after twilight. From your seat in the rocket you can see with dramatic clarity how the sun divides the earth into areas of day and night. In the atlantic ocean, you can see the reflection of the moon which is illuminating Africa; while to the west a thin red line shows you where the sun is setting. Beyond that line, in North America, it is broad daylight.

The rocket is streaking toward the moon. You are breathing deeply of your helium-oxygen mixture. You have attained a speed of 235,8000 miles per hour.

(PAINTING EARTH IN SPACE FROM 35,000 MILES, ZODIACAL LIGHT, RED LINE HORIZON AND MOON REFLECTION IN ATLANTIC)

The Face of the Man in the Moon

In less than an hour you are quite near the moon. At this distance you can see the craters and plains which make the face or the "man in the moon." This is the only side of the moon men have ever seen before, for the motion of the huge, revolving mass is so timed that the same side is always facing the earth. The moon has no light of its own but reflects the sun's light by which now you see the arid plains which cover about half the surface. In the lower left quarte of the desolat ball, near its south pole you can see the white streaks which radiate from the crater of Tycho. Many astronomers believe these streaks to be powdered rock. Their origin is not clear and since their are few disturbances on the moon, they have been there for ages- and will probably remain for many more.

You are coming closer to the moon. All about you in the strange darkness lies the Milky Way, a fascinating, glittering pathway of uncounted billions of stars.

(PAINTING MOON FROM 4,300 MILES)

Under the Moon into Darkness

Now looming large in your window is the roughest section of the moon, the area surrounding it's south pole. You can see clearly the thousands of craters which pock and dimple its surface. You have a closer and fuller view of the mysterious streaks which radiate from Tycho. As you watch with breathless interest, you are struck by the depth of the craters, some of which have sides that rise higher than Mount Everest, the highest mountain peak on earth. You note that some seem to be mountain ranges circling about smooth, bright valleys, while others appear as tremendous holes sinking into hidden fathomless depths. Like most things beyond the earth, the craters are mysteries. No one knows if they wer caused by eruptions of volcanoes or by huge meteors falling like rain on the moon.

As you pass under the moon you realize that this is only the first step of your journey into space. Millions of miles remain yet to be conquered.

(PAINTING 750 MILES FROM MOON - PASSING UNDERNEATH)

The Silent Splendor of Infinity

Here, eleven thousand miles beyond the moon, you look back to see what no man has ever seen before - the moon's hidden face. In the darkness Halley's Comet appears before your startled eyes, it's brilliant tail streaming across the sky for more than 20 million miles. The sun's rays cast a crescent of light on the moon, while far beyond, the earth too, catches the sun's light and hangs like a smaller, less glamorous imitation. Now for the first time, the pull of the earth has no meaning for you. The rocket's motor is shut off and you feel the eerie sensation of being completely without weight. With difficulty you keep from bumping against the rockets ceiling. Food drifts away at the touch of your hand. Water will not pour. You are floating freely through millions of miles of space to Mars.

You have the sudden terrifying feeling that your world has vanished, and that neither day nor night nor time nor space exists in this strange immensity.

(PAINTING 11,000 MILES FROM MOON, EARTH & HALLEYS COMET)

At Mars Shimmering Gates

As you come swiftly towards Mars it assumes breath-taking reality. It is lit by the sun whose light it shares with the earth and moon. Through your window you can see the ruddy surface which covers three-fifths of its area. But made even more conspicuous by contrast is the whiteness of the southern polar cap at the lower edge of the planet. Scientists believe that this white cap is composed of snow, for they know that Mars has seasons similar to the earth's, during which snow would probably fall. There are no oceans or seas on Mars, and the planet receives its scant water supply from the melting of its two polar caps. The jagged rock below Mars is Deimos a satellite similar to our moon but much smaller than it, having a diameter of only eight miles. It circles Mars every thirty hours.

In your race toward Mars, miles have shrunk to meaningless numbers, as the goal which has beckoned men for countless centuries seems to rush toward you.

(PAINTING 12,000 MILES FROM MARS)

The Dream Approaches Reality

The minute hand of your watch has scarcely moved when Mars and its inner satellite, Phobos, seem to fill your window. Phobos, which appears to be touching Mars, is in reality a greater distance from it than Los Angeles is from New York. It is the only satellite in the solar system to rise in the west and set in the east. As it revolves in space its rugged surface gives it the appearance of a flying mountain. The blue-green mass which you see near thetop of your window is Syrtis Major, a large area of Mars northern hemisphere. You are able to distinguish the faint streaks of the so-called Martian canals, at one time thought to be the work of intelligent creatures seeking to trap the water melting from the polar caps. It is now thought they are strips of vegetation many miles wide.

Now the drama of your flight nears its climax. You begin to know the uneasiness of a lonely trespasser on alien, perhaps forbidden, ground.

(PAINTING 6000 MILES FROM MARS)

On the Rim of a New World

At last the great moment arrives. Below you, on Mars, an icy wind blows clouds of dust across vas tracts of Martian desert and over the canals and frozen ponds. Most of Mars' surface seems arid and less rugged than either the earth or the moon. The piercingly cold air contains only a tiny fraction of the amount of oxygen you are accustomed to, and when you land you will need the constant aid of an oxygen mask in order to breathe easily. The surface gravity too, will be much less than it is on earth, and you will be able to lift 250pounds here as easily as you could lift 100 pounds back in New York. Now you adjust your pressure proof space suit and prepare to land. Before you are the answers to the age-old riddles of mankind. SOon you will stand amid the wonders of a new-found world.

You have reached Mars in eighteen days. ANd yet, as the adventure into space ends, you know that in reality it is only the beginning.

(PAINTING ABOVE THE SURFACE OF MARS)

_________________________________
THE END

There you have it...pre-Collier's Mars and E.P. - note they mentioned needing a "pressure proof space suit".... ;-)

Other obscure yet keenly relevant articles on space can be found - not only Collier's - but also the July 1958 issue of 'Think' magazine - which was IBM's in-house publication and this issue was a special on 'Frontiers in Space'. In this issue, Ike introduces the US interest in space exploration and gives a 'report to the American people'. Senator Lyndon B. Johnson discusses the need for a civilian 'space agency' (which would later be NASA), Arthur C. Clarke declares the moon as the first stop and Kraft Ehricke (another ex-nazi) has a magnificent piece titled, "Why meet the Challenge?"

The von Braun plan for Mars was to be conducted with ten ships, two with landing rockets which would not fly in - but would land retro-rockets firing like we did on the moon. The movie Mars and Beyond and the comic book both show men in full pressure suits. In the comic they show a man in a space suit bubble globe style with ribbed arms and legs and the statement "He would need his own oxygen supply and some protective covering."

I am very sure that von Braun was aware of the necessity of pressure suits on Mars and that an oxygen mask wouldn't be enough protection.

Best wishes,

SDAI-Tech1