Human mission to Mars a similar mission in English in the book "The Conquest of Space" (1949), featuring illustrations by Chesley Bonestell. Von Braun's Mars project envisioned nearly a thousand three-stage vehicles launching from Earth to ferry parts for the Mars mission to be constructed at a space station in Earth orbit. The mission itself featured a fleet of ten spacecraft with a combined crew of 70 heading to Mars, bringing three winged surface excursion ships that would land horizontally on the surface of Mars. (Winged landing was considered possible because at the time of his proposal, the Martian atmosphere was believed to be
Earthling English "yrþling", in the meaning "ploughman". The sense of "inhabitant of earth" is first attested in the 1590s. Its use in science fiction dates to 1949, in "Red Planet" by Robert A. Heinlein. The word "Human" has the same imposed meaning, since it originates from a PIE word "*ǵʰmṓ" "earthling" < "*dʰéǵʰōm" "earth". Compare Latin "homo" "human" and "humus" "earth, soil". Its modern use in science fiction literature contrasts "Earth" (the planet) with outer space or hypothetical other planets with sapient life. The term was often used in 1950s science fiction film and novels by aliens to express a disdainful