Building a spacecraft for a human mission to mars

The lunar landings of the 1960s sparked the imagination of even the most conservative engineers and left the world eager to learn more about our planetary neighbours. The focus turned to Mars, a mysterious planet that scientists believed could harbour extraterrestrial life. For many today, these ambitious plans are filed and half forgotten, but in 1965 engineers were confident they could visit the red planet in a matter of years.

An article in The Engineer’s archive outlines a strategy for a fly-by of Mars in a six-man spacecraft. The flight, it said, could be launched in eight years and would take 22 months to complete. ’The mission calls for assembly of a 250ft-long spaceship in orbit 200 miles above the Earth,’ said the report. ’The vehicle would consist of three Saturn S-IVB rocket stages joined in tandem and propelling a 100-ton spacecraft made up by linking an Apollo vehicle to a 21.5ft-diameter, 42ft-long space laboratory.’