Feb 28, 2013 11:14 AM

Beyond Apollo Posts on Piloted Mars (And Other Places) Flybys

The piloted Mars flyby concept was first articulated in detail in 1956 by Italian rocketry pioneer Gaetano Crocco. NASA work on the concept began in 1962, and the space agency devoted as much study effort in the 1960s to piloted Mars flybys as it did to piloted Mars landings. NASA officials even went so far as to announce that they would seek new-start funding for a 1975 manned Mars flyby in the FY 1969 NASA budget. Alas, Congress rejected the proposal in late 1967 in the wake of the Apollo 1 fire. In the wake of yesterday's InspirationMars announcement, space historian David S. F. Portree presents a list of Beyond Apollo blog posts on the piloted Mars/Venus flyby concept.

This image may contain Drawing Art and Painting

I had been holding off posting the list below because I have many more piloted flyby posts in work, but InspirationMars and the journalism that has followed their press conference have forced my hand. So, here you have it: a list of all the Beyond Apollo posts so far on planning for piloted flybys of Mars and other places.

The piloted Mars flyby concept was first articulated in any detail in 1956 by Italian aviation and rocketry pioneer Gaetano Crocco. NASA work on the concept began in 1962, and the space agency devoted as much study effort to piloted Mars flybys in the 1960s as it did to piloted Mars landings. NASA officials went so far as to announce that they would seek new-start funding for a 1975 manned Mars flyby in the FY 1969 NASA budget. The image at the top of this post shows NASA's piloted flyby spacecraft design concept at the time Congress rejected the proposal in late 1967, in the wake of the January 1967 Apollo 1 fire.

You can read the entire fascinating story in my book Humans to Mars, which is available online for free on the NASA History Office website as a set of PDF files (one per chapter):

http://history.nasa.gov/monograph21/humans_to_Mars.htm

Chapters 3 and 4 concentrate on piloted flyby plans, although Chapter 7 contains a description of a 1985 piloted Mars flyby concept proposed for the 1990s. Of course, your best course would be to read the entire book so that you can put these plans into their proper context. I think that I can safely claim that my book is the definitive source on piloted flyby planning history.

Here's my list of Beyond Apollo posts related to piloted flyby mission plans that were in some way similar to the one InspirationMars proposed yesterday. I plan many more piloted flyby posts; if you share my fascination with the concept, then please watch this space.