From von Braun to Mars Direct

Transcript

Humans to Mars tells the story of fifty years of planning for a crewed mission to Mars, from early bold sketches in the 1950s to more practical designs in the 1990s. It shows how each era changed the plan as new spacecraft, new science, and new political realities came into view. One striking detail is that Wernher von Braun once imagined a ten-ship Mars expedition with seventy crew members, while later NASA studies pushed toward lighter, more efficient missions. Another is how Mars planning kept shifting with the times, especially after Mariner 4 revealed a colder, drier, more hostile Mars than many had expected. So the big question is: after all these decades of ideas, which version of the journey to Mars would actually be the one that works?