Steampunk Mars/ Cold War crossover

[Fred Brackin]

Originally Posted by johndallman

In 1973, it would probably be possible to get Saturn V production going again. With a bunch of those and an Earth Orbit Rendezvous setup with a NERVA stage, a manned Mars mission is doable, but quite risky. It would probably take something like ten years.
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Yes, there are Atlases in production in 1973 but no Atlas Vs
After the Saturn V (and the smaller Saturn 1b) the next largest US vehicle is the Titan series. The Voyager probes were launched on Titans.

There was still at least one Saturn V still in the pipeline, the one that launched Skylab. I think you need multiple ones though.

NERVA would help as propulsion for the Mars stage but just incrementally. The real hold-up is the crew vehicle including whatever landing and ascent vehicle you include. That's all being built from scratch and designing and building stuff that way just takes time.

If the Europeans on Mars hold out long enough it might be faster to send them unmanned missions filled with technological care packages. Evacuating more than a handful of people is a non-starter capacity-wise.