- Home
- Collections
- Search the Collection
- Photograph, Electric Spaceship for Manned Mars Flight
Photograph, Electric Spaceship for Manned Mars Flight
Object Details
- Summary
- In March 1966 Ernst Stuhlinger and his team of engineers from NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center presented their concept for an electric spaceship designed for human flight to Mars. The mission would use NERVA (Nuclear Engine for Rocket Vehicle Application) nuclear-thermal rockets and low-thrust nuclear-electric propulsion. By combining the two technologies, the engineers hoped to magnify the advantages and lessen the disadvantages of both propulsion methods. Electric propulsion would require much less propellant than nuclear-thermal propulsion, thus reducing the mass of the vehicle, while the nuclear-thermal propulsion would diminish trip time. Stuhlinger and his team hoped to launch the vehicle in 1986, when the amount of energy needed to travel from Earth to Mars and back would be relatively small and a time of low solar activity.
- NASA-Marshall Space Flight Center transferred this photograph to the Museum in 1976.
- Credit Line
- Transferred from NASA, Geo C. Marshall Space Center
- Data Source
- National Air and Space Museum
- Inventory Number
- A19760044000
- Manufacturer
- NASA Marshall Space Flight Center
- Restrictions & Rights
- Usage conditions apply
- Type
- LITERATURE AND RESEARCH-Photos & Prints
- Materials
- Photograph, wooden frame
- Dimensions
- 2-D - In Frame (H x W x D): 62.2 x 87.6cm (24 1/2 x 34 1/2 in.)
- Country of Origin
- United States of America
- See more items in
- National Air and Space Museum Collection
- Record ID
- nasm_A19760044000
- Usage
- Not determined
Related Object Groups
There are restrictions for re-using this image. For more information, visit the Smithsonian's Terms of Use page .
International media Interoperability Framework
IIIF provides researchers rich metadata and media viewing options for comparison of works across cultural heritage collections. Visit the IIIF page to learn more.