Werner Von Braun

March 23, 2012, marked what would have been the one hundredth birthday of Werner Von Braun, the father of the giant Saturn V rocket that threw Apollo astronauts to the Moon. Without his ability and leadership, the Space Race could have turned out quite differently. Von Braun's real dream, however, was always to put humans on Mars. His plan to do that still informs approaches to reach the Red Planet.

Von Braun's early career is controversial. He worked at Peenemunde, the Nazi base built by slave labor from concentration camps, where he helped build the rockets that terrorized Britain. How much choice he actually had is open to question. Critics seem to assume he could have used his position and influence to somehow civilize the situation. Perhaps, but those critics, by and large, never had to contemplate facing the Gestapo.