Von Braun to TMK‑E: The untold race to conquer Mars

Twenty years before Neil Armstrong uttered the memorable words on the Moon about one small step for man, but a giant leap for mankind, Wernher von Braun presented a groundbreaking plan for manned exploration of Mars.

This German engineer and rocket scientist was responsible, as an SS officer during World War II at the rank of Sturmbannführer, for using the forced labor of concentration camp prisoners from Mittelbau-Dora.

After the war, von Braun became a valuable specialist included in the American Paperclip program. Despite his Nazi past, he was brought to the United States and, in 1955, obtained citizenship, making invaluable contributions to the American space program.

Before his American journey, in 1948, von Braun, inspired by the visionary works of rocket pioneer Hermann Oberth, wrote the novel "Das Marsprojekt", describing a crewed mission to Mars. This was not an ordinary literary work, as it was grounded in calculations and expert knowledge of rocket technology.

Von Braun's Mars expedition plan was remarkable in its scope. He proposed that the mission to the Red Planet would involve as many as 70 people. The expedition was to be organized in seven teams of 10, each traveling in separate spacecraft with a spherical, 66-foot living area. One ship was projected to weigh 4,080 tons.

Launching such large structures from Earth was deemed infeasible, so they were to be constructed in Earth's orbit. The massive construction effort in orbit was to be supported by 20 shuttles, each needing to make about 1,000 flights.

The seven crewed ships were to be supplemented by three unmanned vessels transporting essential equipment. The expedition was to use toxic and hazardous hydrazine as fuel, and to optimize fuel consumption, von Braun proposed that the spacecraft perform a Hohmann transfer maneuver, allowing the expedition to reach Mars after a 260-day journey.

The plan called for the landing of a pioneering group of astronauts near one of the poles. This group would use a single-use lander, which did not have re-launch capabilities but allowed for transporting larger equipment masses.

The pioneers were to traverse about 4,040 miles on Mars' surface to prepare the base and landing site for the others. A total of 50 people were supposed to land on Mars. Meanwhile, a 20-person team would remain in orbit, conducting research and monitoring the spacecraft as they awaited the return of the rest of the crew.

After 460 days on Mars, the crew was to use two landers to return to the orbiting spacecraft and then travel back to Earth. The entire expedition was expected to last almost 2.5 years. Due to its grand scale, the plan was never initiated, as American space industry resources and focus shifted towards the prestigious Apollo program.

The success of the American space efforts inspired the Soviet Union, which, after losing the "Moon race," aimed to overshadow American achievements with an ambitious expedition. The Russians decided to aim for the first crewed mission to Mars.

They developed an expedition called TMK-E. The Russian plan involved sending the entire crew and equipment in a single, 574-foot-long spacecraft, which, much like von Braun's vision, was to be constructed in Earth's orbit.

This massive spacecraft, named TMK (Heavy Interplanetary Spacecraft), was intended to carry a six-person crew to Mars and featured the most extraordinary aspect of the expedition: a nuclear-powered space train.

The plan involved landing in the polar region of Mars. The crew was to reach the surface of the Red Planet in two landers, followed by four additional modules that would form the "Martian train," a multi-module vehicle.

This mobile base was designed to consist of five segments: the first housing people and equipment for Mars research, the second intended for various unmanned vehicles, the third and fourth equipped with rockets for returning to the orbiting Mars base-ship, and the fifth containing the nuclear reactor providing energy for the expedition.

Transporting the necessary equipment for the Martian mission into Earth's orbit required about 30 launches of the N1 rocket, the Soviet equivalent of the American Saturn rockets. Unfortunately, the key element of the entire program, the N1 rocket, faced insurmountable challenges due to its complex propulsion system, the loss of its chief designer, and a series of four failed launch attempts, ending in catastrophic failures. This ultimately doomed both the Soviet lunar program and the planned manned expedition to Mars.

Although the idea was revisited many times over the following decades, we had to wait until the third decade of the 21st century for plans with a realistic chance of realization.