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Handwritten manuscript notes in pencil by Wernher von Braun, three pages, 8 x 10.5 and 8 x 4, no date but circa 1968-1969. Von Braun's handwritten notes for speeches on the Planet Mars. On one page, he contemplates the possibility of life on Mars, in part: "The diameter of the Martian globe is 4220 miles which is only a trifle more than half the earth's diameter. Mars orbits around the sun at a mean velocity of 14.98 miles per second and at a mean distance of 141,500,000 miles from the sun…But many hundreds of thousands of years ago, Mars must have been quite a hospitable planet, capable of supporting probably even all kinds of vegetable and animal life as we know it. What will we find there? Soon we shall know. For within the next 25 to 30 years man will set foot on the Red Planet."
On another, he ponders a human journey to Mars, in part: "260 days later arrival near Mars. Coasting to Mars 'uphill against solar gravity field,' original perihelion velocity of 20.40 mi/sec down to aphelion velocity of 13.39 mi/sec. This is slower than Mars' own orbital speed of 14.98 mi/sec. Mars will therefore overstake ship from astern with an excess velocity, relative to the ship, of 1.59 mi/sec. If ship were exactly in Mars's orbit it would crash upon Martian soil."
On the third, smaller page, he writes: "And ship will leave gravitational field at residual speed of 1.88 mi/sec. Hyperbolic escape, leading directly into circum-solar ellipse." In overall fine condition, with various clerical notations transcribing von Braun's words more clearly.
Accompanied by a first edition, ex-library copy of The Mars Project by Wernher von Braun, published by the University of Illinois in 1953. In March 1952, von Braun published the first of a series of articles for Collier’s magazine dedicated to interplanetary spaceflight. Accompanied by illustrations from Chesley Bonestell, Fred Freeman, and Rolf Klep, the articles thrilled a generation and soon led to the publication of The Mars Project in 1953 by the University of Illinois Press. Von Braun envisioned a 70-member crew aboard a fleet of ten spacecraft, comprised of seven ‘passenger’ ships and three ‘cargo’ ships. The cargo ships would orbit the planet and dispatch groups of explorers to the Martian surface on the smaller passenger vessels; they would then spend 443 days exploring Mars before returning to Earth, another 260-day voyage. In 1956, he published a second book—The Exploration of Mars—which further refined his ideas about human exploration of the 'Red Planet.' He would continue to work and lecture on the subject in ensuing years.
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