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Description

Artwork created for David S.F. Portree's article A New Step in Spaceflight Evolution: To Mars by Flyby-Landing Excursion Mode (1966).

The entire series of images, 10 in all for this article, are available in my Real Designs gallery.

Join me on Patreon and the full resolution artwork along with extra art not published in the article, and a large collection of other artworks, can be yours for just dollars a month. Learn more about becoming a patron here William Black on Patreon.

This image shows the Apollo CM-based Earth-Return Module (ERM) and its braking stage during final Earth approach. The ERM/braking stage combination would have backed out of its "hangar" in the FLEM Flyby Spacecraft two days before the events depicted here. In the image the braking stage engines have just shut down after the braking burn; engine bells still glow red.
Earth-return speed would be relatively high (about 50,000 feet per second), so we decided that mission planners would employ a maneuver pioneered during the 1975 Mars flyby: a braking burn during Earth approach to reduce reentry speed to Apollo lunar-return speed (36,000 feet per second).

Description

Artwork created for David S.F. Portree's article A New Step in Spaceflight Evolution: To Mars by Flyby-Landing Excursion Mode (1966).

The entire series of images, 10 in all for this article, are available in my Real Designs gallery.

Join me on Patreon and the full resolution artwork along with extra art not published in the article, and a large collection of other artworks, can be yours for just dollars a month. Learn more about becoming a patron here William Black on Patreon.

This image shows the Apollo CM-based Earth-Return Module (ERM) and its braking stage during final Earth approach. The ERM/braking stage combination would have backed out of its "hangar" in the FLEM Flyby Spacecraft two days before the events depicted here. In the image the braking stage engines have just shut down after the braking burn; engine bells still glow red.
Earth-return speed would be relatively high (about 50,000 feet per second), so we decided that mission planners would employ a maneuver pioneered during the 1975 Mars flyby: a braking burn during Earth approach to reduce reentry speed to Apollo lunar-return speed (36,000 feet per second).