There was an interesting article that attracted my attention in The Guardian, by John Naughton about Wernher von Braun, often called the “Father of the American Space Program”.
For those of you that do not know it, von Braun and some other technicians who had worked with him on the Nazi, V2 rockets, were scooped up by the American at the end of World War II and put to work on creating rockets and a space program for the US. They were successful and Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin landed on the moon on 20 July 1969.
There are two reasons this made the “Because It’s Friday” slot:
The first is that I have read the book, featured in the article, “Project Mars: A Technical Tale”, although it is a bit long winded and very technical in places, it is still an excellent read for anyone interested in the history of space exploration. The book was originally written in German in 1949, to excite people about space travel, but the plan he lays out, more than 70 years ago, is very similar to many of the current human mission to Mars proposals.
The second is John’s punchline – you will need to read the article to get that…
Clive Catton MSc (Cyber Security) – by-line and other articles
Further Reading
Project Mars: A Technical Tale – Wikipedia
Project Mars: A Technical Tale – Wikipedia
Human mission to Mars – Wikipedia
More on the Apollo 11 Mission – Clive’s Blog (clivecatton.co.uk)
