Werner von Braun's "Marsprojekt" ("Exploration Of Mars")

hesham

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that one of version of Werner Von Braun
"Marsprojeckt" from 1950s
 
Oh my...
It's hard to Google 'Exploration Of Mars' and von Braun, of course
 

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Thank you my dears Michel and Flateric.
 
Huh. This was real easy to find a few years ago, but it took a little digging to find the whole report this evening.


PROJECT MARS is basically the English translation of DasMarsProjekt (I think it was slightly refined from the 1948 paper)) (281 pages)

A short overview of Von Braun's 1952 report linked above which is just a slight update of his 1948 proposal

A short overview of the 1956 proposal which is a refined version same basic system but with only two ships for austerity reasons.

There is also an article buried in the Sept/October AIAA Horizons Newsletter that reprints the Colliers article on Mars which is based on Von Braun's 1948/52 mars proposal. Less technical, but lots of gorgeous arty by Chesley Bonestell, Fred Freeman and Rolf Klep.

Is this what you were looking for?
 
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Started in 1948. Clearly this was not a case of Von Braun having time on his hands to make mostly accurate calculations. Aside from one British report giving information about German ICBMs built during the war and published information about the Saenger Orbital Bomber, this reveals a part of history yet to be fully declassified. And it is also valid for any plans to colonize Mars today.
 
Anyone know where this big, beautiful model of Von Braun's Mars glider is from? This photo is from Ron Miller's The Dream Machines, but I haven't had much luck tracking down the actual model. The suspension wires make me think museum, but that's just speculation.
 

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The suspension wires make me think museum, but that's just speculation.
Sorry, I've not got knowledge to add, but looking at the screw eyes in the wings, I'm betting that's a pretty fair sized model.
Wonder if the wings might be solid wood as opposed to built up with spars and ribs and covering?
 
Anyone know where this big, beautiful model of Von Braun's Mars glider is from? This photo is from Ron Miller's The Dream Machines, but I haven't had much luck tracking down the actual model. The suspension wires make me think museum, but that's just speculation.

I suspect it could be the model used for the film "Conquest of Space" (1955) maybe?

Randy
 
I suspect it could be the model used for the film "Conquest of Space" (1955) maybe?

I actually just watched that! It looks beautiful on blu-ray. The design inspiration is clear, but several "cinematic" changes have also been made. Best not to think too hard about the effectiveness of turbofan engines in the Martian atmosphere. Maybe that's why there are so many of them? LOL

On a similar note, the wings are definitely one of the most distinctive features of Von Braun's original design, but they were dropped in subsequent versions for the same reason. Mars' atmosphere is just too thin.

But speaking just to the aesthetics, these designs are both perfect specimens of this era.
 

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Anyone know where this big, beautiful model of Von Braun's Mars glider is from? This photo is from Ron Miller's The Dream Machines, but I haven't had much luck tracking down the actual model. The suspension wires make me think museum, but that's just speculation.
That model was in Finescale Modeller many years ago, a magnificent multi-page article by the builder on how he constructed it, with excellent design drawings so you could build one yourself. It was made for a museum. It is most definitely *not* from any film as others have speculated. All my copies of FDM are currently in boxes as I've moved house so, sadly, I can't give more information. I would guess it was late 1980s, maybe early 1990s. If I get more info, I'll post.
 
Remember it as well, and also been trying to find my copy.
That model was in Finescale Modeller many years ago, a magnificent multi-page article by the builder on how he constructed it, with excellent design drawings so you could build one yourself. It was made for a museum. It is most definitely *not* from any film as others have speculated. All my copies of FDM are currently in boxes as I've moved house so, sadly, I can't give more information. I would guess it was late 1980s, maybe early 1990s. If I get more info, I'll post.
 
I've not unpacked yet, but I have found out which issue it was!

Finescale Modeler
January 1994

To Mars in 1956!
Lee E. Staton
Building Wernher von Braun's Mars lander in 1/160 scale.

 
I've not unpacked yet, but I have found out which issue it was!

Finescale Modeler
January 1994

To Mars in 1956!
Lee E. Staton
Building Wernher von Braun's Mars lander in 1/160 scale.

Just found that. Some screenshots from ebay offer.
 

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Digging around an old HDD, I found scans I made of the whole FSM article many years ago, all nine pages (EDIT: nine scans, not pages) of it (including scale drawings)!

Mods/Admins, is it permitted for me to post it here?
 
Mars and Earth get close from each others every 26 months, but not all oppositions are equal. They get from good to bad to good again on a 15/17 years cycle. In the 20th century, a very good perihelic opposition happened on September 9, 1956.

Only ten days later von Braun launched a three stage Jupiter missile that almost made it to orbit. The last stage however was ballasted with sand - for political reasons (Vanguard ain't build by ex nazis and the military).

September 20, 1956: Jupiter-C RS-27, lifted an 86.5-lb (39.2 kg) payload (including a 30-lb (14 kg) dummy satellite) to an altitude of 680 mi (1,100 km), a speed of 16,000 mph (7 km/s), and a range of 3,300 mi (5,300 km) from Cape Canaveral, Florida.
 
Here are the scans I mentioned earlier.

If I shouldn't be posting them, Mods/Admins, please delete away...
 

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Here are the scans I mentioned earlier.
Construction method turns out to be very different from what I had imagined earlier.
At that time I was envisioning a vintage model of wood and metal, but, nope, is modern model of resin, plastic, fiberglass.
 
Hi
 

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Post-2
 

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Looking into Von Braun Plans (Shuttle, Station, Moon, Mars Expedition
There would allot changes until operational program.

Replace Hydrazine and Nitric acid with better more powerful propellants, like Aerozin50 and NTO
Lower orbit for Space Station with lower mass since the Meteor protection shield are much lower weight.
First build of Space Station getting the bugs out systems for next steps, the Moon expedition and Mars expedition.
That hardware will lower in mass and size do modern technology
Also Mars lander must be overwork to work in Mars Atmosphere.

what's next Jupiter moon Callisto or Saturn moon Titan ?
 
Won't try to guess at what a bunch of people I do not know might do next, but as for me, I really enjoy the idea of submarines on Titan.
From 2015. Unmanned, tho' - so scale it up a bit.


View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NnKxbdpLP5E
 

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Looking into Von Braun Plans (Shuttle, Station, Moon, Mars Expedition
There would allot changes until operational program.

Replace Hydrazine and Nitric acid with better more powerful propellants, like Aerozin50 and NTO
Lower orbit for Space Station with lower mass since the Meteor protection shield are much lower weight.
First build of Space Station getting the bugs out systems for next steps, the Moon expedition and Mars expedition.
That hardware will lower in mass and size do modern technology
Also Mars lander must be overwork to work in Mars Atmosphere.

what's next Jupiter moon Callisto or Saturn moon Titan ?
In these early designs, von Braun opted for non-cryogenic propellants because the liquid oxygen of the V-2 had given him many problems.
 
Looking into Von Braun Plans (Shuttle, Station, Moon, Mars Expedition
There would allot changes until operational program.

Replace Hydrazine and Nitric acid with better more powerful propellants, like Aerozin50 and NTO
Lower orbit for Space Station with lower mass since the Meteor protection shield are much lower weight.
First build of Space Station getting the bugs out systems for next steps, the Moon expedition and Mars expedition.
That hardware will lower in mass and size do modern technology
Also Mars lander must be overwork to work in Mars Atmosphere.

what's next Jupiter moon Callisto or Saturn moon Titan ?
Regarding the issue of weight, it must be considered that at that time electronics worked with radio lamps.
 
From 2015. Unmanned, tho' - so scale it up a bit.


View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NnKxbdpLP5E

You cannot design a submarine without knowing perfectly the physical conditions of the liquid in which it must sail: pressure, depth, currents, etc. An electrically powered attack submarine operating with the salinity and depth of the Baltic is not the same as a deep-sea rescue submarine. The opposite would be to throw money away, like all other exploration projects that require years of travel due to the lack of a continuous propulsion system or those ships built by hand specifically for a single mission, as if they were Ferraris... Where is the Ford spirit?

Why didn't we design a standard nuclear-powered tugboat and leave the delicate part for the payload?
 
Looking into Von Braun Plans (Shuttle, Station, Moon, Mars Expedition
There would allot changes until operational program.

Replace Hydrazine and Nitric acid with better more powerful propellants, like Aerozin50 and NTO
Lower orbit for Space Station with lower mass since the Meteor protection shield are much lower weight.
First build of Space Station getting the bugs out systems for next steps, the Moon expedition and Mars expedition.
That hardware will lower in mass and size do modern technology
Also Mars lander must be overwork to work in Mars Atmosphere.

what's next Jupiter moon Callisto or Saturn moon Titan ?
“Also Mars lander must be overwork to work in Mars Atmosphere.”



Von Braun understood engines, not aerodynamics and Willy Ley was a zoologist, both had to work with the wing model of the Bell X-2 and the little that was known then about the Martian atmosphere, the idea of landing is also little worked, in the first designs there was speculation about ice skates to land at the poles. See Imag.376 in detail
 
Thanks everyone for responding and for posting these wonderful images and articles!

I took a crack at making a 3D model last week, but really needed better reference material before attempting version 2. After going through the Finescale Modeler article, I can definitely see some areas that need another pass. Thanks again!
 

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After going through the Finescale Modeler article, I can definitely see some areas that need another pass. Thanks again!
That brings to mind a multiple decades old phenomena in the model railway world,
The non-existent references for that one shadowed part in the multiple photographs of the prototype you are modeling will only become available AFTER you have finished the model and entered it in a contest.
 
That brings to mind a multiple decades old phenomena in the model railway world,
The non-existent references for that one shadowed part in the multiple photographs of the prototype you are modeling will only become available AFTER you have finished the model and entered it in a contest.
 

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