Post by Chicago Astronomer - Astro Joe on Jul 14, 2005 1:31:27 GMT -6
Mars Concept Vehicles
Here is quite a cool compilation of concept space crafts that were planned and sketched out.
From the site:
"Since Wernher von Braun first sketched out his Marsprojekt in 1946, a succession of designs and mission profiles were seriously studied in the United States and the Soviet Union. By the late 1960's Von Braun had come to favour nuclear thermal rocket powered expeditions, while Korolev's design bureau decided that nuclear electric propulsion was the way to go. All such work stopped in both countries in the 1970's, after the cancellation of the Apollo program in the United States and the N1 booster in the Soviet Union."
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Well worth a few moments of your Martian time.