Download 14 Free Posters from NASA That Depict the Future of Space Travel in a Captivatingly Retro Style

Mars_150

If I could send a message back in time, I might send it to the wide-eyed and skyward-looking children of 1960s America, apologizing that we never did build those jetpacks, flying cars, and moon colonies, but also letting them know that at least we, the citizens of the 21st century, have developed such technologies as smartphones and a myriad of ways for snack foods to taste both sweet and salty at once.

PSOJ318.5-22_screen

I probably wouldn’t tell them how many of us long for the spirit of their own time, which American history has labeled “the Space Age” for good reason. It had its share of awfulness, starting with the apocalyptic tensions of the Cold War, but that competition between societies did spur mankind to voyage boldly and unhesitatingly out into the great beyond, at least for a while there.

GrandTour_150

“Back in the 1930s and ’40s, during the height of the Great Depression,” writes Hyperallergic’s Allison Meier, “artists designed posters for the Works Projects Administration (WPA) to encourage travel to national parks and other tourist sites in the United States. NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) design studio is taking a similar approach to promote a future of travel to other planets at a time when its funding is up against budget constraints and even a journey to our galactic neighbor Mars may seem almost impossible.” And so we have this brand new series of fourteen Visions of the Future, free to download, print, and hang above your desk to fuel your own outer-space daydreaming.

Enceladus_150

You’ll notice that all the artists commissioned have designed their space-travel posters—whether they promote the high gravity of the “super Earth” exoplanet HD 40307g, the one-day “Historic Sites of Mars,” or the “Grand Tour” of the Solar System—in a richly retro style reminiscent of 1930s air travel advertisements. This makes them artistically captivating, but also emphasizes the continuity between our present, the century behind us, and the centuries ahead. “As you look through these images of imaginative travel destinations,” says NASA/JPL’s site, “remember that you can be an architect of the future” — and every future worthy of the name comes built solidly upon a past.

HD_40307g_39x27

You can download the full collection of posters right here.

via Hyperallergic

Related content:

How the Iconic 1968 “Earthrise” Photo Was Made: An Engrossing Visualization by NASA

NASA Archive Collects Great Time-Lapse Videos of our Planet

Ray Bradbury Reads Moving Poem on the Eve of NASA’s 1971 Mars Mission

NASA Presents “The Earth as Art” in a Free eBook and Free iPad App

NASA Sends Image of the Mona Lisa to the Moon and Back

Free Interactive e-Books from NASA Reveal History, Discoveries of the Hubble & Webb Telescopes

Leonard Nimoy Narrates Short Film About NASA’s Dawn: A Voyage to the Origins of the Solar System

The Best of NASA Space Shuttle Videos (1981-2010)

Wonderfully Kitschy Propaganda Posters Champion the Chinese Space Program (1962-2003)

“Glory to the Conquerors of the Universe!”: Propaganda Posters from the Soviet Space Race (1958-1963)

Based in Seoul, Colin Marshall writes and broadcasts on cities, language, and style. He’s at work on a book about Los Angeles, A Los Angeles Primer, the video series The City in Cinema, the crowdfunded journalism project Where Is the City of the Future?, and the Los Angeles Review of Books’ Korea Blog. Follow him on Twitter at @colinmarshall or on Facebook.


by | Permalink | Comments (5) |

Support Open Culture

We’re hoping to rely on our loyal readers rather than erratic ads. To support Open Culture’s educational mission, please consider making a donation. We accept PayPal, Venmo (@openculture), Patreon and Crypto! Please find all options here. We thank you!


Comments (5)
You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.

Leave a Reply

Quantcast
Open Culture was founded by Dan Colman.