Case for Mars mission and spacecraft

[Blackstar]

I'm going to be writing about this space mission and spacecraft concept. I already have some information on it, and I'm contacting artist Carter Emmart about the illustrations he produced.

There is an entry for it here:

http://www.astronautix.com/c/caseformarsii.html

If anybody knows of more information about it, please share it here. I'll share some of the other stuff I have in this thread.

[Blackstar]

Here is the original 1987 proposal.

[Blackstar]

https://e05.code.blog/tag/carter-emmart/

https://e05.code.blog/category/mars-expedition/case-for-mars/

[leovinus]

Here is the original 1987 proposal.

That seems to be
19870008315 ,The case for Mars concept, "1986-05-01", archive.org

There are a couple more on NTRS
19870001379 ,The case for Mars, "1986-04-15", archive.org
19860044038 The case for Mars II
19900029471  The case for Mars III: Strategies for exploration - Technical
19870001379 The case for Mars: Concept development for a Mars research station
19900029597 A strategy for Mars: The case for Mars III - Keynote address
19900029596 The case for Mars III: Strategies for exploration - General interest and overview

There is stuff at JSC as well. And Chapter 7 in "Humans to Mars" Fifty Years of Mission Planning, 1950—2000
David S. F. Portree SP-2001-4521

Will have a look for more.

[leovinus]

https://e05.code.blog/tag/carter-emmart/

https://e05.code.blog/category/mars-expedition/case-for-mars/

That seems to be the conference artwork, right? Overlaps with
https://archive.org/search?query=%22case+for+mars%22
where you can see also see some tantalizing NASA reports

[Blackstar]

Here is the original 1987 proposal.

That seems to be
19870008315 ,The case for Mars concept, "1986-05-01", archive.org

There are a couple more on NTRS
19870001379 ,The case for Mars, "1986-04-15", archive.org
19860044038 The case for Mars II
19900029471  The case for Mars III: Strategies for exploration - Technical
19870001379 The case for Mars: Concept development for a Mars research station
19900029597 A strategy for Mars: The case for Mars III - Keynote address
19900029596 The case for Mars III: Strategies for exploration - General interest and overview

There is stuff at JSC as well. And Chapter 7 in "Humans to Mars" Fifty Years of Mission Planning, 1950—2000
David S. F. Portree SP-2001-4521

Will have a look for more.

Yes, so those papers are all contained in a series of AAAS books. I have them at my office.

[Blackstar]

Carter did the artwork as a series of sketches during the conference. Later he made color pencil drawings. A few years later he built a model (actually 2 models) of the cycler spacecraft. One belongs to the NASM and I've seen that. A few years ago he told me that the second model was in a storage container in Colorado and he had not opened it in 25 years.

[LittleBird]

Carter did the artwork as a series of sketches during the conference. Later he made color pencil drawings. A few years later he built a model (actually 2 models) of the cycler spacecraft. One belongs to the NASM and I've seen that. A few years ago he told me that the second model was in a storage container in Colorado and he had not opened it in 25 years.

Looking forward to this article. The  NASM model, iirc, was a highlight of Where Next Columbus ? in 1992-2002  https://www.airandspace.si.edu/exhibitions/where-next-columbus? I think it may have been on a wall, and rotating ?

Pics of it might be in this archive ? https://www.si.edu/object/siris_sic_12986

[leovinus]

https://www.reddit.com/r/space/comments/uvqjz/i_attended_the_case_for_mars_conference_in/

where it says

I attended the Case for Mars conference in Boulder, CO in 1993. I have several hours of videotapes of different presentations that took place, including a Q&A by Buzz Aldrin, who attended. Should I put this stuff on YouTube?

[leovinus]

Here is the original 1987 proposal.

That seems to be
19870008315 ,The case for Mars concept, "1986-05-01", archive.org

There are a couple more on NTRS
19870001379 ,The case for Mars, "1986-04-15", archive.org
19860044038 The case for Mars II
19900029471  The case for Mars III: Strategies for exploration - Technical
19870001379 The case for Mars: Concept development for a Mars research station
19900029597 A strategy for Mars: The case for Mars III - Keynote address
19900029596 The case for Mars III: Strategies for exploration - General interest and overview

There is stuff at JSC as well. And Chapter 7 in "Humans to Mars" Fifty Years of Mission Planning, 1950—2000
David S. F. Portree SP-2001-4521

Will have a look for more.

Yes, so those papers are all contained in a series of AAAS books. I have them at my office.

The books were issued by Univelt. There is a list at the link below. As far as I know, Univelt is not doing business anymore but as I ordered some books from them in the past, I have reached out whether there might be a DVD or similar with all volumes. Will update when I hear anything.

http://www.univelt.com/htmlST/SciTecSS.htm#MarsExpliorationVolumes

[Blackstar]

The books were issued by Univelt. There is a list at the link below. As far as I know, Univelt is not doing business anymore but as I ordered some books from them in the past, I have reached out whether there might be a DVD or similar with all volumes. Will update when I hear anything.

http://www.univelt.com/htmlST/SciTecSS.htm#MarsExpliorationVolumes

Yes, I hung out with the publisher at a conference back in the 1990s. He was a very quiet, unassuming guy. There was a really funny moment when we were out with a group at dinner and a young woman was hitting on him and he was totally oblivious. We kept kidding him about it afterwards.

[Blackstar]

Carter Emmart's model in the Smithsonian. I took this photo several years ago. It is not currently on display.


Correction: I am no longer sure I took this photo. They displayed it like this in the museum and I took photos, but this may be the Smithsonian's photo.

When they originally displayed it in the 1990s it rotated in the display, which was pretty cool.

[leovinus]

Carter Emmart's model in the Smithsonian. I took this photo several years ago. It is not currently on display.

A few more details and images here:
https://www.si.edu/object/model-mars-mission-spacecraft:nasm_A20070215000

[Blackstar]

Carter Emmart's model in the Smithsonian. I took this photo several years ago. It is not currently on display.

A few more details and images here:
https://www.si.edu/object/model-mars-mission-spacecraft:nasm_A20070215000

Thank you. I was going to look for the official NASM images. One of the modules has a cutaway view. There is a 2001: A Space Odyssey poster in one of the rooms. I think Carter told me that there is also a Terminator poster on the wall, but you cannot see it from most angles.

[Blackstar]

My article will appear on Monday. Here are some illustrations I have collected.

[Blackstar]

https://thespacereview.com/article/5085/1

Spinning, spinning, spinning to Mars
by Dwayne A. Day
Monday, October 20, 2025

In 1984, a group of scientists, engineers, and graduate students meeting in Colorado for a conference and led by a core group of enthusiasts who a journalist nicknamed the “Mars Underground,” developed a concept for a human mission to Mars. Because the group included an artist named Carter Emmart who sketched and later illustrated the phases of the Mars mission, for at least a decade or longer that Mars concept appeared in books and even novels as the way that humans would explore the Red Planet. It influenced both the culture and thinking about human missions to Mars.

Origins of the Case for Mars Conference
Two weeks after the launch of the Space Shuttle Columbia in 1981 on its first mission, a group of Mars enthusiasts met for a conference. The organizer was Christopher McKay, then an astro-geophysics Ph.D. candidate at the University of Colorado at Boulder. They based their conference on NASA’s 1976 study “The Habitability of Mars.”

The University of Colorado Space Interest Group had started planning a year earlier, in spring 1980, and focused on Mars because Mars research had dried up after the Viking missions. Benton Clark had written a paper in 1978 called “The Case for Mars,” which provided the name for the conference. The 1981 conference consisted of around 300 engineers, scientists, and other enthusiasts. This was at a time when NASA had no active projects underway to explore the Red Planet. The Viking missions had created a lot of excitement about the possibility of life on Mars, and when it was not discovered, public attention and government funding went elsewhere. Journalist Leonard David coined the term “Mars Underground” in a November 1979 article for Future Life magazine, referring to them as “a small clique of maverick space enthusiasts, both in and out of government,” adding that they were a “the modest and secretive clan.” The Case for Mars conference was their debut party.

Several concepts for human exploration of Mars were presented at the 1981 conference, including a proposal for a human mission to the Mars moons Phobos and Deimos that would not land on the planet. But many of the attendees had greater ambitions. They wanted humans to walk on Mars. To live off the land. And to stay.