Mars Explorers Wanted Posters | Hacker News Reader

Mars Explorers Wanted Posters

mars.nasa.gov

158 points_gkcw46 comments

Similar posters from SpaceX with a tourism theme:

https://shop.spacex.com/accessories/mars-phobos-deimos-poste... https://shop.spacex.com/accessories/mars-olympus-mons-poster... https://shop.spacex.com/accessories/mars-valles-marineris-po...

To be fair NASA has those too: http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/visions-of-the-future/

If you dig these posters, you'll like these from Chop Shop: http://www.chopshopstore.com/collections/space-exploration-t...

They partnered with The Planetary Society a while ago to make retro-style posters for both historic and present day robotic spacecraft.

Obligatory link to Wanderers with its Sagan voice over:

https://vimeo.com/108650530

Those are fantastic! I didn't know I was going to order art today but I guess that's happening.

I really wish they'd hire an actual painter — the vectorized style emulates a painted style, but seems to lack the quality of what they're trying to reproduce.

The astronauts in these posters are really poorly rendered in general and quite muddy in some places (the we need you poster seems to be a different, somewhat superior art style).

Don't get me wrong, these are nice, originally had a smaller budget than wide reproduction/consumption — but in my opinion are about 80% of where they should be.

I like them. They're meant to evoke the sci-fi pulp fantasy spirit of the 1950s and 60s.

For some reason, they also remind me a bit of the art deco style that Dresden Codak tried to emulate: http://dresdencodak.com/2011/12/16/dark-science-14/

I like them in theory, and I agree with you — but original sci-fi pulp with real paintings has a much more authentic feeling to it. That's what I wish they did here.

https://www.google.com/search?q=sci-fi+pulp+fantasy&source=l...

This is a beautiful thing. If I were a teacher, I'd hang these in my classroom ASAP. My office will have to do instead.

Is there any similar pre-lunar landing artwork? The only one I can think of is this 1955 presentation by Wernher von Braun: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2fautyLuuvo

Probably not what you're looking for, and only in a kind of similar vein, but the first thing that came to mind was the 1962 Mars Attacks trading cards. They provided a twisted version of what Mars might be like if it were inhabited by aliens who wanted to invade and feature soldiers fighting martians and (if I remember correctly) eventually people going to Mars to fight them.

God damn it. There is NO NEED to sell it to me. Tell me where to apply, NASA!

Apply here: http://astronauts.nasa.gov

If you want to go to Mars, now is probably a good time to start astronaut training. If you get in, you'd probably be about at the prime of your astronaut career when the time came to pick people to go.

Put at least $500,000 together and wait for SpaceX to develop the MCT.

You have practically zero chance of being an astronaut with NASA because the cost of launch with something like SLS will make sending more than a handful of the best of the best unaffordable.

Well, true. But usually when one company finds a cheaper solution the others are pressured to do the same. NASA will be slower, but eventually they will provide the same service quality as SpaceX or will be replaced with something else.

So naturally somebody has to link the Visions of the Future posters as well: http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/visions-of-the-future/

I have a sweet huge Grand Tour on my wall. Thanks NASA.

I got the awesome Europa poster hanging in my room. Absolutely love these!

It would be thrilling if the current state of our space exploration was on a level suggested by these posters. Are we sending people to farm Martian soil or explore the Martian terrain anytime soon? Obviously not. So, honest question: what is the point of these posters?

Pretend you're a 5 year old kid and you get one of these posters. You go to school for 13 or so years wanting to be an astronaut. Then you join the Air Force or go to Caltech or something, all with the desire to one day be the first man on Mars. 10-15+ more years of training, and you're finally an astronaut. Still think it'll be unreasonable in 30 years?

Inspire

How soon is soon? 5 years isn't going to happen, but 15-20 is quite possible the way things are going right now.

Instant phone wallpaper, right there.

Pretty clear people would volunteer to do missions that assume no return and possible curtain death - yet NASA instead decides not to embrace this and instead created posters for a "mission" to Mars that increasingly appears will never be done by them directly.

When I was young becoming an astronaut would have been a dream. In recent years, after discovering the world of online learning, I learned too much though to have any desire to go into space, not with current or even soon-to-be technology. Physiological stress and radiation are very big problems. You must be young and thinking about health never entered your mind to apply for the job (yes of course, risk assessment vs. benefits is highly subjective, here, I'll even help you, see below).

Anyway, if you are interested start here (free courses):

- The Conquest of Space: Space Exploration and Rocket Science: https://www.edx.org/course/conquest-space-space-exploration-...

- Space Mission Design and Operations Learn the concepts: https://www.edx.org/course/space-mission-design-operations-e...

- Human Spaceflight - An introduction: https://www.edx.org/course/human-spaceflight-introduction-kt...

- Introduction to Aerospace Engineering: Astronautics and Human Spaceflight: https://www.edx.org/course/introduction-aerospace-engineerin...

and maybe even (the more "heavy-weight" and more theory-heavy course)

- Introduction to Solar Systems Astronomy: https://www.edx.org/course/introduction-solar-systems-astron...

- Talking about a journey to Mars, you just must read "Packing for Mars" (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Packing_for_Mars), Google Talk presentation by the author (40 minutes): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y0kaycVtvhU

PS: For a first flight experience I recommend you look up and contact a flight school at a small airport near you. An introductory 1 hour lesson without any prior requirements can easily be booked, and it is "self-contained", meaning you don't need to feel you are taking advantage if you don't become a student, they get paid for that hour. But even getting your private pilot license is not all that hard. I got mine years ago :)

For those of you in the Bay Area: http://www.wvfc.org/membership/introductory-flight (not the only address there, but the one where I went) As you can see it starts at $99 and is common enough to be made available in "packaged" form.

The juxtaposition of the "space is risky" with "go learn how to fly small planes" is weird to me. Small planes are pretty risky too, and you don't even get to go to space! (Don't believe the common refrain that the riskiest part of flying is the drive to the airport. That's true for airliners, but completely untrue for light aircraft.) By all means, be informed, but you certainly don't need to be ignoring your health to make that decision.

By the way, if you like flying but don't like being deafened by a big fan up front the whole time, consider a glider flight instead: http://www.ssa.org/FAST

There is a big difference between space risk and small aviation risk. You always get health issues when you go to space long-term (see the links I have in other replies) with current technology. That is not true for aviation, and you overstate the risks too. That's (rare) accidents vs. "simply doing it is bad for you". I repeat that I'm talking about long-term space flights, not something like a week-long space shuttle mission.

Where am I overstating the risks?

Flying as a hobby probably doesn't have much in the way of long-term health consequences, but doing it as a profession does. Radiation exposure at cruise altitude is significantly higher, but nobody seems to warn prospective pilots or flight attendants that they're risking their health for their job. At least with astronauts, you can be certain that they'll be taught just about everything there is to know about the health consequences of space travel before they're given the opportunity to go on a long-term space mission.

    > Where am I overstating the risks?

2nd sentence

    >  long-term health consequences, but doing it as a profession does

Okay, you are just trolling, I didn't know that. My apologies. We were talking about a flight to Mars, it's obvious you are not serious. Sorry I missed your joke(s).

You go on and on about the risks of long-term space flight, but deny the risks of spending a lot of time at airliner cruising altitudes? How bizarre. Obviously, the ill effects aren't nearly as bad, since the radiation exposure is lower and there are no negative effects from zero g, but it's fairly well established that flight crews suffer greater incidences of certain diseases, like cataracts and some cancers.

> You must be young and thinking about health never entered your mind to apply for the job.

None of the current ISS crew are young; I suspect they just assess the risks differently.

They didn't apply to go to Mars - which is the subject. Although you are right, there will be no shortage of volunteers, there never was for risky exploration.

By the way, congratulations - of all the many things I wrote you managed to find the thing the (subjective) hair in the soup. If you have a different opinion about those risks, am I trying to argue you out of it? Instead, I give you (IMHO) some really good pointers to go beyond the "count me in" forum comment.

Also, I did read about one long-term astronauts numerous health issues. He may not regret his time in space, but he sure is suffering now. Don't remember whom the interview was with, and it wasn't one of those who were up there only for a week or two, but for months and multiple times. If you go to Mars it's even worse.

Just an example, and note that the radiation issue is going to be much worse on the way to Mars: http://lemire.me/blog/2015/12/01/the-mysterious-aging-of-ast...

EDIT: Sorry for pointing out the negatives, but downvoting does not solve those problems.

I would like to see though the difference (or not) in the excitement about going to space before and after learning about everything it involves, of which health problems are just a part. Live on board a tiny spaceship already is bad enough, now imagine it going on for months.

Another quick read (with link to a longer one) to see that a mission to Mars is something different in terms of health risks is http://www.iflscience.com/space/astronaut-safety-concerns-co...

    > For astronauts to be permitted to take on that risk in future missions, current safety
    > regulations would have to be expanded or waived. NASA had asked the IOM to review the
    > regulations and either make a special set of regulations for Mars missions or to make an
    > exception. The IOM has determined that the risk is not worth it and changing the current
    > restrictions is opening up an ethical can of worms.

> EDIT: Wow, several downvotes already. Sorry for pointing out the negatives, but downvoting does not solve those problems.

It's the tone, not the content, that is earning the downvotes. I suspect if you left out the second paragraph (and the edit), you'd seem less prickly.

Everyone dies, including those who do nothing.

* Grandchild-A: "My grandmother died on a mission to Mars."

* Grandchild-B: "My grandmother died writing a book on how space will kill you."

Grandchild-C: Not born because grandmother couldn't reproduce due to early death.

Great...Grandchild-N: Never born because humanity never left Earth.

Don't worry, Grandchild-c. grandmother first had four kids THEN went into space. All is good.

Nice retro-science-fiction look!

So this is how programmers finally go remote. We need people to grow food, survey land, build things, but you can just code from Earth and transfer it to Mars. You'll need to be in an office on Earth though.

That font size!

The characters are like half an inch high each on my iPad Pro. Auto-detecting mobile Safari and forcing a mobile view without any way to switch to something more reasonable perhaps wasn't the best design choice.

The posters are cool tho.

so you have to walk around and grow vegetables wearing that space suit like a Ninja.

Beam me up Scotty (to Mars) there is no intelligent life down here (on Earth).

I thought it was "Energize". [1]

[1]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HxKJyeCRVek

So that's where we are? Idiotic wishful thinking instead of real space exploration? That's what became of yesterday's dreams?

I like to think that this things are made for the public opinion. More people are exited, easier is for NASA to find the money necessary

They tell you why they were made:

"NASA originally commissioned these posters for an exhibit at the Kennedy Space Center Visitor's Complex in 2009. As part of our Journey to Mars, these versions are now available to everyone online."

They're just freeing up the design of their decorations in case other people like them and want to use them.

It's not "instead of." NASA is making both posters and Mars rockets.

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