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Autograph manuscript draft signed "Wernher von Braun," one page, 8 x 9.5, no date. Writing in ink and pencil, Wernher von Braun drafts a page for one of his pioneering works on the exploration of Mars, beginning: "The planet Mars is the logical first objective of an interplanetary expedition. It's clear atmosphere and weak surface gravity seems to make a landing simpler than a landing on cloud covered Venus…This is Mars, as seen from its outer moon, Deimos…its surface is a reddish colored desert. But when, in the Martian Spring, the snowcaps on the north pole melts, a green-bluish line begins to creep over the Northern Hemisphere. Half a Martian year later, the same phenomenon is observed on the Southern hemisphere. Contemporary astronomers interpret these color changes as sprouting and withering vegetation."
He goes on to ask: "But what kind of vegetation? Will it be limited to lichen and moss? Or will it be more advanced types of plants entirely unlike anything on earth? Will there be animal life on Mars? And even if we don't expect any higher forms of animal life are there any traces or remnants of ancient civilizations?" In fine condition.
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.'
The Collier’s series drew widespread attention to von Braun’s vision of manned spaceflight—after the success of the first issue, he appeared on TV and radio shows around the nation to discuss the subject. He was soon recruited by Walt Disney, and served as a technical advisor for three TV films about space exploration between 1955 and 1957. These broadcasts brought the idea of the space program into American living rooms nationwide. For the first time, Americans had a vision of space travel not out of Buck Rogers, but grounded in scientific reality as envisioned by the central figure of the coming Space Age.
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