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ABSTRACT

A plan is presented for the entire national space effort throughout the next 35 years, beginning in 1969. The plan is comprehensive in scope, and sufficiently detailed for an early management decision for or against its adoption. Although it does not depend on the extension of present engineering knowledge, it does fully provide for such an extension. It calls for reorganizing NASA (The National Aeronautics and Space Administration) to be the National Space Academy, to occupy the existing installations of the Manned Spacecraft Center, near Houston. The procurement and assembly of rockets and spacecraft would be assigned to a new, semi-private, Spacecraft Corporation, to be made possible by an enabling act of Congress. Rationalization of the plan, together with recovery of launch rockets from all flights, and standardization of trips and spacecraft, would provide a capability far in excess of any plan heretofore suggested, at an annual cost substantially less than that of NASA in 1969.

PREFACE

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NASA in 1967 terminated all funding of both in-house and contract planning for manned planetary exploration. One is sadly reminded of Turkey in 1623. It was recorded in "The Travels", by Elviya Tchelebi, Vol. I, pp.607-611, that Hezarfin (Thousand-famed) Ahmet Tchelebi (The Celebrated) made eight successful, manned flights in an unpowered glider. His last flight, in the presence of Sultan Murat Han (Murat IV), in 1623, was from the Tower of Galata to Dogan Meydani, four miles away, across the Bosporus. The sultan rewarded Ahmet with a pouch of gold, and said, "You are a man to be feared. Whatever you set your mind to do you accomplish. The presence here of someone like you is dangerous".

He promptly banished Ahmet to Algiers.

A little later in the reign of the same sultan, during festivities in honor of the birth of the sultan's daughter Pakize, a Hungarian named Lagari Hasan made the first successful manned flight in a rocket powered glider. The story is recorded in the same book, p.671. The glider was powered by seven rockets containing 154 pounds of gunpowder paste. In the presence of the sultan, at the shore of Saraylburnu (Palace Grounds), Hasan mounted the rocket, his helpers lit the cord fuses, and he rose skyward as long as the powder lasted, after which he glided to a successful landing on the grounds of the Kiosk of Suleyman Pasha (General Suleyman). He received a hero's welcome by the populace, and was brought before the sultan, who gave him a pouch of gold, promoted him to an official position in the army, and sent him to the Crimea, where he died.

It is alleged that the United States cannot at this time afford any new starts in the manned exploration of the solar system. The allegation may well be true, and it may equally well be false. The judgement is being made in ignorance. Those who make it do so without having ever seen a master plan for space exploration, for it is a fact that until now neither NASA nor anyone else in the United States has presented any such plan. It is the purpose of this paper to present a plan whereby an informed judgement can be made.

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2.1-a MASS OF ROCKET REQUIRED TO LAUNCH A UNIT MASS

OF SPACE ROCKET INTO A NEAR-PARABOLIC ELLIPSE
AROUND THE EARTH

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2.1-b A VERSATILE SPACE ROCKET-LAUNCH ROCKET CONFIGURATION 16

2.2-a THE REFERENCE SPACE ROCKET

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2.2-b TANK ARRANGEMENT IN THE REFERENCE SPACE ROCKET

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TABLE

TABLES

PAGE

2.4-a

MASS TABULATION MUTUALLY ADJUSTED FOR MARS AND
VENUS SHIPS. ROUND TRIP TO VENUS

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2.4-b

MASS TABULATION MUTUALLY ADJUSTED FOR MARS AND
VENUS SHIPS. ROUND TRIP TO MARS

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2.4-c 8-CYLINDER GILLESPIE ROCKET

2.4-d

MASS TABULATION MUTUALLY ADJUSTED FOR MARS AND
VENUS SHIPS. ROUND TRIP TO VENUS
8-CYLINDER GILLESPIE ROCKET

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MASS TABULATION MUTUALLY ADJUSTED FOR MARS AND
VENUS SHIFS. ROUND TRIP TO MARS

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2.4-e

SELECTED SAMPLE SHIP MASSES, MUTUALLY ADJUSTED 3.1.1 NOMINAL TRIPS TO VENUS THROUGH ONE SYNODIC CYCLE 3.1.2

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NOMINAL TRIPS TO MARS OFFOSITION OF 1978

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6.3.3

WORK SHEET ESTIMATE OF ACADEMY PAYROLL COST PER YEAR 6.3.4 ANNUAL RATE OF ASSEMBLIES

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6.3.5 ESTIMATED ANNUAL COST

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