Das Marsprojekt.

Von Braun’s engineering study for a Mars expedition of ten ships and seventy crew, relying on conventional chemical propellants (hydrazine and nitric acid) rather than speculative nuclear drives: three-stage ferry rockets to assemble the fleet in Earth orbit, the interplanetary vessels themselves for the outbound and return legs, and wingless landing boats for three of the ten ships to reach the Martian surface.

Von Braun wrote it in 1948–49 at Fort Bliss, Texas, as the technical appendix to an unpublished science-fiction novel; unable to place the appendix with a publisher on its own, he saw it appear instead as a Sonderheft (special issue) of the journal Weltraumfahrt, edited by Heinz Gartmann for Umschau Verlag — the same magazine, publisher, and year as the collection’s run of Weltraumfahrt issues, also in this collection. An English translation followed in 1953 as The Mars Project (University of Illinois Press).