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
Aurora (fictional planet) Aurora (fictional planet) Aurora is a fictional planet in Isaac Asimov's "Robot" series. It was the first world settled by the Spacers, originally named 'New Earth'; it was located 3.7 parsecs (12 light years) from Earth. In Asimov's fictional universe, the innermost planet orbiting Tau Ceti was mankind's very first extrasolar planetary settlement, established in 2065. Originally named "New Earth", in later millennia the planet would be renamed "Aurora", which means "dawn", to signify the dawning of a new age for the Spacer culture. It was also considered the strongest of the Spacer worlds, and was their "de facto" leader.