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Wernher Von Braun remains one of the most polarizing figures in space flight history. His involvement with Nazi Germany during World War II casts a long shadow over his achievements. Nevertheless, his genius and visionary thinking were instrumental in the U.S. space program, particularly in the successful Apollo 11 Moon landing in 1969. However, Von Braun's ambitions extended far beyond the Moon; he envisioned the colonization of Mars.
In the early 1950s, just seven years after the war's conclusion, he published "The Mars Project," outlining an ambitious plan to send 70 humans to Mars for an entire year by the early 1980s. Central to this plan was the use of nuclear power—an idea that was groundbreaking at the time and would ultimately be crucial for human exploration of the solar system.