Evolution of a Marswalk

Abstract

For decades prior to President Kennedy’s commitment to the Moon, there were countless suggestions about what the first men would do once they arrived there. Once Apollo became an authorised programme tasked with landing men on the Moon by 1970, the eight years between Kennedy’s commitment in May 1961 and the Apollo 11 landing in July 1969 were full of proposals, plans, studies, ideas and suggestions for what lunar landing missions could or should attempt. Almost two generations later, history looks set to repeat itself. For decades we have pondered manned flights to Mars, including surface exploration, but we have yet to define exactly what the first landing will achieve, simply because we have no clear idea of when we will go, how to will get there, or how long we will be staying. So, defining exactly what the first Mars explorers will do is a leap into the unknown - prone to changes of technology and direction by the time we first walk on another planet. However, we can trace the ideas and suggestions from the history of early Mars exploration plans, and present a scenario that could probably be attempted.