Why a 1971 Mars study planned 71 Shuttle booster launches
NASA’s 1971 Manned Spacecraft Center Mars study treated assembly as a cost and complexity problem, not just a question of fitting hardware into a launch vehicle. It assumed a fully reusable, two-part “flyback” Shuttle and chose chemical propulsion instead of nuclear engines as part of an austerity-minded proposal. Those were planning assumptions, not capabilities the study demonstrated[1][2].
The orbiter’s 15-foot-diameter payload bay would have forced the Mars ship into as many as 30 separately launched components, followed by what the study called a “complex and lengthy assembly and checkout process” in orbit. Instead, it proposed three larger, 24-foot-diameter modules carried on Shuttle boosters, using chemical-propulsion stages to finish reaching orbit[3][4].
The larger modules reduced the assembly task, but did not eliminate the launch burden. The study estimated 71 booster launches: six to put the modules and propulsion stages into orbit, and the remaining 65 to carry orbiter tankers that would fuel those stages. It also proposed reusing Shuttle engine and tank designs in the stages to limit costs. This was a mission design proposal, not an account of a Mars mission that flew[5][6].
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