Von Braun thought he needed so many men for those missions because
they did not anticipate what a computer could do (navigate, etc.).
There were several US military expeditions to Antarctica in the 1940s
and 1950s which involved many hundreds of personnel and lots of
ships, so that was the thinking at the time.
If my memory serves, von Braun's plan envisioned such things as
crewmen jumping down from the wings of the plane to the ground
many feet below after spending months in microgravity. They would
then assemble tractor-like vehicles and drive from their polar landing
site to establish a base near the equator. It's nice that von Braun
thought these guys were hardy and tough, but hoy!
You are right that at least the former German rocket team's plans were
for establishing permanent bases right away, rather than the flags and
footprints approach and then maybe have a small base 60 years after
the first landings as we do now.
Space/Science » in reply to Old 1948 designs...
Use Phobos and Deimos as natural space stations
The whole thread (27 posts)
- We aimed for the stars...and stopped