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Wernher von Braun: First Edition of The Mars Project

Currency:USD Category:Collectibles / Autographs Start Price:NA Estimated At:2,000.00 - 4,000.00 USD
Wernher von Braun: First Edition of The Mars Project

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Auction Date:2022 Oct 20 @ 18:00 (UTC-5 : EST/CDT)
Location:15th Floor WeWork, Boston, Massachusetts, 02108, United States
ALS - Autograph Letter Signed
ANS - Autograph Note Signed
AQS - Autograph Quotation Signed
AMQS - Autograph Musical Quotation Signed
DS - Document Signed
FDC - First Day Cover
Inscribed - “Personalized”
ISP - Inscribed Signed Photograph
LS - Letter Signed
SP - Signed Photograph
TLS - Typed Letter Signed
Scarce first edition of the 1953 book The Mars Project by Wernher von Braun. Published by the University of Illinois Press, in Urbana, Illinois. Hardcover with dust jacket, 7.25 x 9.25, 91 pages. The title page bears an ownership stamp belonging to A. A. Perez, ‰ÛÏAeronautical Engineering, MIT.‰Û Book condition: VG+/G with edgewear, creasing, surface losses, and toned tape and adhesive residue to the jacket.

In March 1952, von Braun published the first of a series of articles for Collier‰Ûªs 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 ‰Û÷passenger‰Ûª ships and three ‰Û÷cargo‰Ûª ships. The cargo ships would orbit the planet and dispatch groups of explorers to the Martian surface on the smaller passenger vessels. In the launch toward Mars the ships would fire their engines for 66 minutes, using more than three-quarters of the propellant on board, and enter a coast for 260 days until arriving at their destination. They would then spend 443 days exploring Mars before returning to Earth, another 260-day voyage.