Last rocketeers set sights on Mars

To this new generation, the German rocketeers are an inspiration. For the rocketeers, the techies are reviving their dearest hope: that man will go to Mars.

"If private industry takes tourists into space, it might uplift the whole program again," says Konrad Dannenberg, 92, a propulsion expert on Apollo. "I'm very hopeful."

Ernst Stuhlinger, 92, who was von Braun's right-hand man, twinkles when asked about the new generation's dreams of Mars flights. "We old-timers have been thinking that way for a very long time."