A Boeing design study for a Mars exploration probe, 40 ft. in diameter and weighing 600 lb. Assembled and launched at a space-station, the unmanned probe would draw its power from the Sun. Propelled by an ion rocket, it would take three years to orbit Mars and return.
Eagle Book of Rockets and Space
Longacre Press, 1961
Right:
MARS VEHICLE. Drawing, based on Boeing study, of space vehicle designed for launching from orbiting platform for reconnaissance flight to Mars and return. Lunar, orbital and interplanetary system studies, and expanding programs such as the advanced Minuteman solid-propellant ICBM, are typical of challenging assignments Boeing offers electronic-electrical engineers.
Missiles and Rockets
December 7, 1959
Image credit: Boeing Aircraft Company
Image source(s): Numbers Station, Internet Archive
