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nickfourtimes's review against another edition
4.0
1) "Since the actual development of the long-range liquid rocket, it has been apparent that true space travel cannot be attained by any back-yard inventor, no matter how ingenious he might be. It can only be achieved by the co-ordinated might of scientists, technicians, and organizers belonging to very nearly every branch of modern science and industry. Astronomers, physicians, mathematicians, engineers, physicists, chemists, and test pilots are essential; but no less so are economists, businessmen, diplomats, and a host of others. We space rocketeers of all nations (where permitted) have made it our business to rally this kind of talent around the standard of space travel, which, in the nature of things, is synonymous with the future of rocketry."
2) "Each ferry flight [of parts to Earth orbit] consumes 5,583 tons of propellants (see Table 8), so that the whole ferry operation will need about 5,320,000 tons. This is equivalent to the capacity of 443 tank ships of 12,000 tons displacement each. It is interesting to compare this to the official statistics which show that about 10 per cent of an equivalent quantity of high octane aviation gasoline was burned during the six months' operation of the Berlin Airlift."
3) "The reserve range thus available with respect to radio communication with an expedition to Mars may be exploited in the following manners:
1. Reduction of transmitter output power, thus reducing transmitter weight and size of the solar reflector for power generation.
2. Reduction in size of the directional antennae.
3. Increasing the bandwidth, thus rendering possible reception and transmission of speech and music."
2) "Each ferry flight [of parts to Earth orbit] consumes 5,583 tons of propellants (see Table 8), so that the whole ferry operation will need about 5,320,000 tons. This is equivalent to the capacity of 443 tank ships of 12,000 tons displacement each. It is interesting to compare this to the official statistics which show that about 10 per cent of an equivalent quantity of high octane aviation gasoline was burned during the six months' operation of the Berlin Airlift."
3) "The reserve range thus available with respect to radio communication with an expedition to Mars may be exploited in the following manners:
1. Reduction of transmitter output power, thus reducing transmitter weight and size of the solar reflector for power generation.
2. Reduction in size of the directional antennae.
3. Increasing the bandwidth, thus rendering possible reception and transmission of speech and music."
barryhaworth's review against another edition
3.0
A book I have been curious about for some time, this book is Von Braun's outline of how a mission to Mars might be achieved using rocket technology according to the state of the art in the early 1950s. Very math and calculation heavy, the book is more a technical manual that demonstrates that such an undertaking is possible than anything else, and is interesting to compare to the various mission plans that have been discussed since.
squidbag's review
5.0
I'm not going to pretend to understand von Braun's math, or even to have processed every equation, but even without that, there lies exposed on these pages a mad and brilliant and gorgeous plan for going to Mars, assembled by a genius in 1948 using a slide rule. The foundations for NASA are here, along with fodder for the next 40 years of sci-fi to follow. It's like reading Verne's book about Paris in the 20th century except that von Braun applied all of this and built stuff. Astonishing.
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