What Curiosity Can't Show Us About Mars

The cities are underground!


Original Cinecolor theatrical trailer for the 1951 Monogram Pictures' space adventure, FLIGHT TO MARS, starring Cameron Mitchell, Marguerite Chapman and Arthur Franz.

This Just In...In 1955

You can make that date for a trip to the moon around 1975. According to industrial designers of the American Iron and Steel Institute, development of new steels, able to withstand temperatures and corrosive conditions never before experienced, will enable huge man-carrying rockets to knife through the earth’s atmosphere into outer space, where our conquest of space will begin with establishment of space stations, fully manned and intricately equipped, and supply and launching bases for further exploration into the mysteries of space. If you are interested in flying saucers, the first practical flying saucer may turn out to be this plane that will carry passengers at speeds of 600 miles an hour. Six pivoting jet engines mounted around the edge of the plane will lift it up – and land it – almost vertically. ~ American Iron and Steel Institute, 1955

h/t Louis Cesar

Earth, Seas, Skies, and Space - Arthur Radebaugh Had Grand Ideas

Shims and Oil Seals - It's what National Motor Bearing Co. in Redwood City, CA. produced. NMB manufactured their products for transportation - trains, planes, automobiles, ships, subs - basically, anything that moved. It was a key player in the defense industry during WWII. NMB was a proud company and very forward looking. During the 1950s, the NMB plant in Redwood City was considered one of the most high tech operations around. There was one man who has been credited as the main inspiration for this futuristic image - creative genius and master artist Arthur Radebaugh. Radebaugh worked in the Marketing and Advertising department between 1951 and 1955. Below are some of the details from various adverts created by him. The man wasn't just a commercial artist - he was a futurist with a limitless imagination.

Transportation:

Infrastructure and Agriculture:

Collecting important natural materials - on this planet:

...and elsewhere:

Research - on this planet:

...and elsewhere:

And here's one last concept that is already in use in our time:

Arthur Radebaugh had a whole lot going on in his head. To read more about this brilliant man, and see more of his other works, click here.

(h/t to Atomic Samba for the images)

Protective Wear For The Well-Dressed Interplanetary Traveler

Future Space Suits
Science Fiction Plus magazine, May 1953
Art by Frank R. Paul

Front Cover Artwork by Frank R. Paul

I Like Dreaming

It started like this:

The front page of the Soviet newspaper Komsomolskaya Pravda after the 1957 launch of world's first satellite: Sputnik.

...and now it's like this:

A Beehive of Satellites: The debris objects shown in the images are an artist's impression based on actual density data. Image Credit: European Space Agency via NASA

...we're still dreaming of this:

To The Other Planets, Prague 1962. Illustrated by František Škoda. (via josefskrhola).

I like dreaming.