Mars want you!
Hate your job? Look no further. Once again NASA has produced some retro space posters, only this time it is to promote its Journey to Mars initiative. If you are a teacher, farmer, surveyor, or a mechanic — just to name a few — NASA wants you to volunteer for service on Mars.
Yes, it sounds a little like propaganda, but it’s all in good fun. The posters, which were originally commissioned back in 2009 for display at the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex, are now free to the public, and they highlight the awe-inspiring landscape of Mars.
“We wanted to design an exhibit that would speak to the future of space exploration, and inspire young people to become interested—and perhaps become our future workforce [of] scientists, engineers, and astronauts,” explained Andrea Farmer, the public relations manager for the complex, to National Geographic.
SEE ALSO: Elon Musk Wants to Send People to Mars by 2025, Beating NASA by a Few Years
The posters definitely make life on Mars look glamorous. There’s a farmer standing proud behind his crop; an explorer rappelling down a cliff; and a pair of surveyors mapping the Red Planet landscape.
Two of the eight posters released by NASA. Photo credit: NASA/KSC
Obviously, living on Mars would not be this easy.
First, Mars is more inhospitable than Antarctica. Second, its atmosphere is more than 50 times thinner than the air at the summit of Everest — not breathable. Third, temperatures like to swing from -153 to 20 degrees Celsius (-225 to 70 degrees Fahrenheit). Last, but certainly not least, Mars gets a lot of dust storms that can stir up soils filled with toxic perchlorate salts and completely block sunlight for days. Clearly, there are still a lot of challenges to work out.
But despite these dangers, many people around the world hope that these posters will one day be a reality. After all, said John Logsdon, an emeritus professor at George Washington University’s Space Policy Institute, in an interview with National Geographic, “it’s what space people do.”
You can download the retro posters online.
Earlier in the year, NASA released travel posters for each of the planets: NASA Is Giving Away Retro Space Travel Posters for Free
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