Collier's Man in Space Articles

[Clipperride]

Apart from being a rocket scientist, Wernher Von Braun was also an excellent publicist.  He managed to sell the idea of going to the Moon to the American public.  For those interested in reading the original series of articles published in Collier's Magazine between 1952-1954, scans of the magazine are available for download.   Fascinating stuff!  Enjoy

Edited February 12, 2017 by Clipperride

[Bill Phil]

Von Braun worked with many others on those articles. 

They are a great read, but they aren't 100% realistic. Even so, they weren't supposed to be perfect, nor where they an actual proposal. They were published to show the public that space travel was becoming science fact, and would soon leave the realm of fiction.

[Clipperride]

The team working on the articles included Fred L. Whipple, Joseph Kaplan, Heinz Haber and Willy Ley along with Wernher von Braun.

It's interesting to compare the figures in the articles to the actual launch vechiles that followed.  Of course, von Braun et al were working on the assumption that a space station would be used as a stepping stone to the Moon.

[DerekL1963]

15 hours ago, Clipperride said:

It's interesting to compare the figures in the articles to the actual launch vechiles that followed.  Of course, von Braun et al were working on the assumption that a space station would be used as a stepping stone to the Moon.

In some quarters it's called the Von Braun Vision (roadmap in modern parlance): (reuseable) Shuttle -> Station -> Mars.  (von Braun was mostly interested in Mars, but later accepted that most people were interested in the Moon and swapped it into the Vision in place of Mars.)  He, like most people, assumed that when we got around to going that it would be part of a larger strategy and ongoing process of exploration, colonization, and exploitation.  (Much as the model had been in the 17th-19th centuries.)