NASA’S BIZARRE SPACE TRAVEL POSTERS

Occasionally I get emails from folks where the blog material consists of... well, a picture.  You know the old adage, "A picture is worth a thousand words"? Well, today we have several pictures that add up to an entire thesis of several thousands of words and several pages, courtesy of P.T. (and thank you for bringing these to our attention!).

This is my way of saying I'm at a loss for words pondering the implications of these pictures, but I'll get back to that, because first, you've got to see the pictures. What am I babbling on about? NASA, it seems, has come up with a series of space travel posters, and needless to say, some of them are provocative:

In hopes of inspiring younger generations, NASA created this series of gorgeous retro travel posters that encourage you to imagine a future where common space travel is a legitimate possibility.

In fact, I found some of these so thought provoking, I had to double check with NASA's official site, and yep, they're there:

Space Tourism Posters

At least NASA has a sense of humour, noting that "The Grand Tour" of the outer gas giants in the solar system is only possible once every 175 years; or that the grass on Kepler-186f is always redder on the other side, or that  visiting the geysers on "beautiful Eceladus" would allow you to see "Cold Faithful". For that matter, take a trek to Kepler-16b and experience a planet with two suns, where your shadow, quips the poster, is never alone and always has company. Or check out the Cloud 9 Observatory on Venus, "voted the best place in the solar system to watch the Mercury transit."

But then come some truly strange posters where I have to wonder if NASA isn't doing a little more than just some tongue-in-cheek fun, but rather, admitting in a "fun" context what it would never admit in a "formal" one like a press conference. Consider the "Halcyon" poster, where we read "Why stay earthbound when prosperity awaits in the stars? Come to Halcyon, the only colony on the edge of the frontier that is owned by distinguished corporations." Or ponder the "Europa" poster with its "Discover life under the ice" and its stylized picture of a large (apparently giant) octopus or (look closer) some sort of structure in which humans can be see looking out of windows at the underwater beauty, a structure that only looks like a giant octopus.  (And why an octopus? I wonder if it might have anything to do with that speculation out there that cephalopods might have been "seeded" on this planet. Anyway... back to the posters).

But the one that is the most humorous and, simultaneously, the most thought provoking is, of course, the one advertising Mars. At the bottom, this: "Mars: Multiple Tours Available: Robotic Pioneers/Arts and Culture/Architecture and Agriculture."

Arts? Culture? Architecture?

Ok... they're obviously imagining a future...

But then, at the top of the same poster, we read, "Visit the Historic Sites..."  Ok... that's Never A Straight Answer for you; they're having their own little laugh, because none of those historic sites have been built yet... Right?

...uhm... Right? ....

.... nothing there, right?

Trick of light and shadow...        right?....  Huh guys?

This is a joke... right guys?

....

..............

.................. guys?  Are you there..........?

(See you on the flip side...)

Posted in

Joseph P. Farrell

Joseph P. Farrell has a doctorate in patristics from the University of Oxford, and pursues research in physics, alternative history and science, and "strange stuff". His book The Giza DeathStar, for which the Giza Community is named, was published in the spring of 2002, and was his first venture into "alternative history and science".

29 Comments

  1. SoCal G on May 30, 2021 at 12:42 pm

    Nasa must have had a little fun at our expense with the ” Greetings from your First Exoplanet” Poster, 51 Pegasi b. An “extrasolar planet approximately 50 light-years away in the constellation of Pegasus”.

    Also note that in the bottom right hand corner of the post card is written “Since 1995”.

    Recall the Stargate spinoff series Stargate Atlantis. What Galaxy was that in? The Pegasus Galaxy. The show debuted on July 16,2004, the launch date of Apollo 11 (According to S.K. Bain in his disturbing book, the number one means a revelation). The show of course had to do with “The Ancients” according to Earth lore, a high civilization in antiquity that had their city destroyed by sinking under the water due to a “war”

    So we have all these little markers and odd bits of data one can connect and granted 51 Pegasi b is not exactly in the Pegasus galaxy, but its location will suffice.

    It looks like some of the Roosters got permission to perhaps have a little fun.



  2. Maatkare3114 on May 29, 2021 at 3:35 pm

    Yes, let’s go visit the Historic Sites on Mars.



  3. LadyBug on May 27, 2021 at 12:15 am

    So alluring, such beautiful places but I am soooo skeptical of this. We could have an earth like that NOW and way better living conditions for so many people NOW. Making life more beautiful for the people already here hasn’t been a priority so I’m a bit suspicious of this AD campaign. My bet is it could be a lure to a work camp because they would need workers despite robotics. They are pretty pictures though and they do give insight to what these planets are like.



  4. EnabledVet on May 26, 2021 at 10:14 am

    What I found as interesting as the Mars poster was the “Oasis Earth” poster. Seems like they’re advertising a trip BACK to Earth! Just a visit, to get some fresh air and breath easy. But you don’t live there! It’s just a vacation spot!
    Clean air, breathing free, seems like all the “bad” things have been eliminated. Perhaps, in NSAS’s future (or their handlers visions), humanity, by and large, has been removed from Earth, leaving only a few to enjoy humanity’s home.
    “Leave room for Nature. Leave room for Nature,”



  5. Old Wolf on May 26, 2021 at 7:33 am


  6. FiatLux on May 26, 2021 at 2:04 am

    Aside from the content of the posters, what does it mean that they’re now coming out with imaginative ads to “encourage you to imagine a future where common space travel is a legitimate possibility”? I suspect it means that common space travel is already a legitimate possibility, and they’ve decided to start revealing it. Kind of like Columbus’s “discovery” of the New World actually being a revelation of secret knowledge that had been around for ages.



  7. anakephalaiosis on May 26, 2021 at 1:00 am

    Iconography of “Jules Verne around the galaxy in 80 seconds” shows a Stockholm syndrome, in the empire of Pope Satan!

    There is a “Wonderful Copenhagen” poster, by Viggo Vagnby, showing a duck family crossing the road:

    https://classiccopenhagen.blogspot.com/2010/08/wonderful-copenhagen.html

    This idyllic Scandinavian projection does abstract away, from the fact, that court Jews on thrones are a death trap.

    Trojan Horses keep up appearances, so that one may walk in a single file, behind a Judas goat.



    • anakephalaiosis on May 26, 2021 at 1:05 am

      In a similar fashion, both YOGA & RUNES are today a part of the enemy’s fake propaganda, promoted by sectarians.

      That is why the original “empire killer” of the Scythian Isaacs has to be defined, to its original intent.

      In doing so, the glossy image of Christianity will be taken off the poster, and be given a new name, according to original intent.

      Parading icons on city walls, does not prevent the fall of Constantinople. On the contrary, it is the cause of the fall…



  8. Laura on May 25, 2021 at 9:45 pm

    trying speculation today. I like those posters. they remind me of something….o yea, that Mars poster, the iconography looks similar to the GizaDeathStar mind control graphic. look at the heads with the circles, it is as if the Mars poster is an expansion of the mind control graphic. viewed together I cannot stop thinking about Total Recall. Kuato : You are what you do. A man is defined by his actions, not his memory.



    • Laura on May 25, 2021 at 9:47 pm

      but then there is always this: McClane: No matter where you go, there you are. It’s always the same old you. Let me suggest that you take a vacation from yourself. I-I know it sounds wild. It is the latest thing in travel. We call it the Ego Trip.



  9. marcos toledo on May 25, 2021 at 7:36 pm

    The best thing NASA could do to solve its budget problems is to admit it’s a dog of the military. By coming clean it would have access to the military slush funds and truly build the real spacecraft to plunder the solar system and beyond becoming Space Vikings and no a never read that book.



  10. Richard on May 25, 2021 at 3:27 pm

    Historic sites? There’s a lot to consider with that phrase to be sure. Observing the Moon a century ago to several millennia ago both have historic value in how they were described and worked into the cultures of the time.

    Oddly, several of those posters seem to have been or maybe could have been AI generated and then enhanced by an artwork editor. Artwork that definitely conjures an additional layer of symbolism.



  11. Winston1984 on May 25, 2021 at 1:54 pm

    Yeah funny little symbolism in that Mars poster…hmmm something akin to the CERN symbol (rotation, rotation, rotation…torsion) at the top forehead of the “astronaut”. They implying they want a CERN-like facility there? Do they already have one, or something like it? And why at the forehead of the astronaut, they implying something to do with mind? Maybe I’m digging too far. Water symbolism, vegetation symbolism….observatories?! Hahaha nothing to see here, move along…



  12. Melodi on May 25, 2021 at 12:52 pm

    NASA types tend to read science fiction, I’ve met many at “cons” and they have read Foundation, Robert Heinlein, The Martian Chronicles, and a lot of the other stuff some of these posters are based on.

    Halcyon is one of the funniest to me, having just re-read the Foundation Trilogy.

    I actually hope this may be a picture of things to come but even if it is all in good fun it is kind of interesting. I’m surprised these were not up at World Con in Dublin but they may have come out afterward.



  13. Robert Barricklow on May 25, 2021 at 12:15 pm

    First thought on posters was: propaganda.
    Second thought: iconic soviet posters.
    http://www.sovietposters.com/

    To today’s post.
    Got to say those NASA posters are propaganda retro personified.
    Wickedly cool!
    Loved the Earth poster:
    “Where the air is free
    [implying, at one time it wasn’t]
    “& Breathing Is Easy”[not w/masks!].
    In fact: instead of saying, “Goodbye”; or, “See you later”;
    I quip to those wearing masks, “Breathe Free!”.

    There’s a treasure trove of hidden gems in those posters;
    hinting at the truths being masked
    by the Never A Straight Answer bureaucracy.
    The posters also play well to ongoing sci-fi narratives;
    and, I very much enjoy the slyly coy humor in it all.

    P.S.
    [I’m saving these posture pics!]



  14. OrigensChild on May 25, 2021 at 12:09 pm

    Right on time. Trump’s EO’s on space. The Great Reset. Projects for radio telescopes on the moon. Projects for a digital currency among major banking institutions. Now, corporate presence and space tourism. Are we now living in the modern equivalent of the 15th century?



  15. Joseph Aiello on May 25, 2021 at 11:53 am

    There is something tingling when seeing these posters.



  16. Roger on May 25, 2021 at 11:46 am

    I liked the Venus poster. With Venus’s 90 times more dense than Earth atmosphere a platform with a large enough Earthlike atmosphere would indeed float like a hot air balloon does here on Earth. Interesting, if one could siphon off most of the carbon dioxide on Venus but leave the nitrogen the Venus’s atmosphere might be very similar to Earth’s current mostly nitrogen atmosphere and at about the same pressure. Nitrogen is a small percentage on Venus but when you take in the understanding Venus’s atmosphere is 90 times more dense than Earth’s that small percentage approaches Earth’s current atmosphere. I notice that they now claim Venus has very little sulfuric acid in it’s atmosphere. Likely because someone realized that with an atmospheric pressure as high as Venus’s reputed pressures, acid rain would form concentrated lakes and perhaps oceans of sulfuric acid instead of water because the boiling and evaporation point would be much greater under such pressure. The science of Venuses physical traits still has lots of holes in it when examined carefully enough which leads me to wonder if we all are being miss informed about what is really there.



    • Robert Barricklow on May 25, 2021 at 12:18 pm

      Exactly!



    • Perelandra on May 25, 2021 at 9:28 pm

      Excellent points about Venus.
      This Venus poster really struck me with its Cloud 9 Observatory. In the reboot of Battlestar Galactica, Cloud 9 was a luxury liner that was destroyed by a thermonuclear weapon whilst in orbit around New Caprica …



  17. Clenis on May 25, 2021 at 10:54 am

    Those posters are fantastic! I wonder if I can buy a set (looks like you can download them though)? Regardless of the intent, those are great posters!



    • Krista tiffy on May 26, 2021 at 11:14 am

      I think they know humans are attracted to beauty and harmony , (is that our certain lineage?)
      And are also easily enchanted …..
      It’s a catch 22
      Even bees are making synthetic honey in some places
      Oh if I were allowed to cuss …..



  18. Chris on May 25, 2021 at 8:28 am

    Nice…. NASA’s new Ad campaign both embraces its own traditional role and that of the Dark Age, New Normals running the show. What these posters are really saying in their soul bleached muzak, acid trippy, and thus frighteningly addled, artistically destitute way is–Follow The Science Fiction! As opposed, of course, to follow the science. I would have been impressed if they had included an Arctic Lemming in the example of Mars, Retro-Back-To-The-Futurism or done a Jackson Pollock interpretation of the asteroid ruin ring, or a Munsch The Scream, Face On Mars. Even Chesley Bonestell put a cow skull on the moon….

    Two Tears, Chris



    • Roger on May 25, 2021 at 12:15 pm

      Science fiction expands consciousness to new potentials. Becoming aware of new potentials causes you to begin to resonate with a new expanded potential dimension where such is possible if you do the work and art to make it your new reality. Science fiction has the ability to open the gates of conscious wormholes to new potential realities and futures for those with the will strong enough to make it happen.



    • Richard on May 25, 2021 at 3:32 pm

      The posters might be a nudging toward further innovations.



  19. HD on May 25, 2021 at 7:51 am

    Titan looks nice.



  20. DanaThomas on May 25, 2021 at 5:44 am

    C.S. Lewis would have had something to say about these illustrations….



    • DanaThomas on May 25, 2021 at 5:47 am

      Individual posters no longer downloadable, maybe there are updates coming.



  21. anakephalaiosis on May 25, 2021 at 5:38 am

    [completely spaced off topic]

    1. Scythian yoga is an empire killer, because it produces a mentality, that can do anything.

    2. Modernizing the nicknames of Odin’s animals, becomes Scythian yoga for dummies:

    Busy & Naughty. –> (physical discipline)
    Mindy & Memo. –> (mental discipline)
    Willy & Nilly. –> (emotional discipline)
    Fame & Glory. –> (spiritual discipline)

    3. The Druid Runes flesh out Odin’s animals, into greater detail, while playing fun game.

    4. In Indian yoga, the wolf Naughty has been castrated, causing loss of speed training.

    5. The Seven Seals are a cognate to Scythian yoga, explaining where Christ is coming from.

    Rock-and-roll!



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