Project MARS: A Technical Tale

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Mankind's love affair with the planet Mars is certainly not new.

It has long been recognized that Mars is the planet in our solar system most capable of supporting life.

Until the 1970s, the existence of life on Mars remained an open question. We know today that there are no civilizations on Mars, but in 1949, when this story was written, the possibility had not yet been ruled out. In this story by Wernher von Braun, Mars has an underground civilization which is more or less on par with our own. And it is a peaceful civilization, neither bent on conquest nor paranoid about being attacked. In this story of man's first human mission to Mars, ten space ships make the journey. Upwards of 1,000 flights into Earth's orbit are required to build, supply and fuel these ten ships, and it is an international, cooperative project. In short, the undertaking is on a scale that would never happen in the real world. We tend to stick our toes in the water first, before diving in.

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