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Ellsworth Gerrels

Ellsworth Gerrels, a retired General Electric engineer and consultant to NASA, has been conducting presentations on “planetary space exploration and the origin of our universe and all living things” to schools, universities, churches and civic organizations both in the United States and around the world. Mr. Gerrels has 38 years experience in the development and testing of the United States’ most ambitious space programs, including the launch of some of the first rockets, missiles and spacecraft. He helped to design, develop and launch unmanned spacecraft, such as Voyager I and II which performed flyby missions of most of the planets in our solar system. He was also a significant contributor in the conceptual design, planning and development of advanced manned missions to the Moon and Mars. He was on the ground floor of the Apollo project, which landed the first astronauts on the lunar surface in 1969. He joined engineers and scientists in the design and development of space station concepts, which culminated in the International Space Station, now in orbit.

In the late 1960s he joined a team, lead by Dr. Wernher von Braun, to study concepts to land 12 men on Mars by 1985. Although the program was terminated in the mid 70s, manned Mars missions, incorporating nuclear power and propulsion, continue to be a future objective. Interest in manned Mars and Lunar missions resumed in the early 1980s. Mr. Gerrels was instrumental in the initiation and subsequent design and development of advanced nuclear power and propulsions systems for Lunar and Mars exploration, establishment of space colonies and support of the U.S. Strategic Defense Initiative better known as “Star Wars”. Mr. Gerrels has had close involvement with the United States Congress, the Department of Energy, Department of Defense and NASA. He has served on several government committees addressing United States’ space and terrestrial power needs and was an ad-hoc member of NASA’s Space Technology Advisory Committee. As a result of his space exploration activities, Mr. Gerrels obtained a much greater understanding and appreciation of God’s role in the creation of our Earth, the vast universe and the origin of life. Scientists and engineers are coming to the realization that there has to be a “master designer”. In addition, man is much too complicated to not have a creator. Mr. Gerrels firmly believes that the master designer and creator is God, a truly “Awesome God”. Since his retirement, he has devoted considerable time speaking on this subject. These speaking engagements have taken him over much of the United States, Russia, Thailand, Cambodia and Poland.

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