Lunar Liftoff

Space World, November 1964

Image credit: Bell Aerosystems
Image source: Numbers Station

“Complex” Space Vehicle

Complex space vehicles from Earth in orbit around Mars some time in the late 70’s, as visualized by today’s engineers.

The Next Fifty Years in Space
by Erik Bergaust
Macmillan, 1964

Image credit: Rocketdyne
Image source: Numbers Station

Supersonic Launch Vehicle

Image credit: USAF
Image source: AFMC 

Northrop Lander

First manned landing on Mars! This Northrop sketch shows how a soft landing on the red planet might look from ground level. A steerable gliding cloverleaf parachute slows the craft down as the retrorockets start to fire. The parachute is then jettisoned, and the retrorockets perform the final maneuver for touchdown. Retrorocket braking was perfected in the 1960’s to provide the soft landings for the Surveyor moon probe.

Project Viking: Space Conquest Beyond the Moon
by Irwin Stambler
G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 1970

Image credit: NASA
Image source: Numbers Station

Get To Da Choppa!

Project Viking: Space Conquest Beyond the Moon
by Irwin Stambler
G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 1970

Image credit: NASA
Image source: Numbers Station

Viking by Russ Arasmith

Image credit: NASA
Image source: Mike Acs

Viking

Image credit: NASA
Image source: Mike Acs

A Laboratory on Mars

Prime goal of Project Viking is this National Aeronautics and Space Administration sketch, to land a biological laboratory on the surface of Mars. The picture shows a design in which the protective housing around the experiments unfolds in petal fashion once the laboratory is safely on the Martian surface.

Project Viking: Space Conquest Beyond the Moon

by Irwin Stambler
G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 1970

Image credit: NASA
Image source: Numbers Station