The Next 50 Years on the Moon (1974) part 3

I continue my exploration of our alternative future of Moon exploration as outlined in:

Bergaust, Erik. The Next 50 Years on the Moon. New York: GP Putnam's Sons. (94 p.) 24 cm. 1974.

 The details laid out in their proposal are amazing.  By combining older aerospace paintings and NSA projections and timetables the author conveys an interesting possible future.

I like this prediction that by 2015 "this whole moon business" would become ordinary.  Little did they suspect that even by 1975 much of the American public had moved on from being concerned about what we were doing in space.

 A final science fiction note from the author suggesting that when the first baby is born in a new "territory" is when we really have started colonization.

The proud mom :)

The Next 50 Years on the Moon (1974) part 2

We move forward into the alternate future of our space program from:

Bergaust, Erik. The Next 50 Years on the Moon. New York: GP Putnam's Sons. (94 p.) 24 cm. 1974.


The Lunar colony under construction...

For the next posting we will look at what the the 2010s and 2020s will bring to our settlement of the Moon:

The Next 50 Years on the Moon (1974) part 1

This is my 300th posting!  When I started this back in Feb of 2009, I knew I had some cool stuff to share but I had also never done a blog before. 

http://dreamsofspace.blogspot.com/2009/02/what-is-this-all-about.html

I was worried about "burn-out" and the rigor of having to come up with something interesting to show or say. But I am still going strong, with cool new stuff I have found and old stuff I am getting a chance to look at again.  Like some collectors there was a time when I could not seem to add stuff fast enough and some of it got briefly looked at before it got stored.

Thank you for your comments and support.  I repeat again: "I think this stuff is cool and it feels good that other people agree with me."

So as an example of going deeper I look back on this book from Jan 4, 2010:
http://dreamsofspace.blogspot.com/2010/01/next-50-years-on-moon-1974.html

Bergaust, Erik. The Next 50 Years on the Moon. New York: GP Putnam's Sons. (94 p.) 24 cm. 1974.

I love the illustrations in this book of what an alternative future of our time on the Moon might have looked like.  So I have scanned in almost all the illustrations and examples of this alternative timeline.  For the next few postings I will take you to the "further" exploration of the Moon as seen through NASA and the aerospace companies of the time.

This next set illustrates what Apollo 19-24 might have looked like:

The "souped-up Lunar Excursion Module (LEM)"

The variety of vehicles that never made it off the show room floor :)

Much more to come...

Conquering the Sun's Empire (1963) part 2

This is the second part of my posting about this book. For part 1 see here:
http://dreamsofspace.blogspot.com/2012/06/conquering-suns-empire-1963-part-1.html

Ordway, Frederick I and Wakeford, Ronald C. Illustrated by Lange, Harry H-K. Conquering the Sun’s Empire. New York : E.P. Dutton and Co. 128 pp. 23 cm. Cloth, DJ.

Mars from one of its moons

 Inside the Mars colony

 One use for the asteroid belt is to help with the interplanetary distances.

 I love all the hardware in the next few illustrations.  Rarely do we see how different planets might be used or explored.

 Everyone goes to Titan, go someplace new this summer: Callisto!

 I am not sure about manned expeditions exploring inside Saturn's rings. Above or below maybe, but not in them.

 When was the last time you saw a ship exploring Uranus? (ha ha He said Uranus)

The whole book has some great inspirational images. There was a similar book by the same author/artist pair called: "Life in other solar systems". Not as many interesting illustrations but still worth seeking out.

I was asked if this book is available. I am a big fan of the used book site bookfinder.com (http://www.bookfinder.com/). I see several copies available.

Conquering The Sun's Empire (1963) part 1

This is not a young children's book but rather a book for high school students about man's exploration of the solar system.  It is filled with truly beautiful space art by Harry H-K Lange. Mr. Lange was involved with some of the concept drawings for the film 2001, as well as illustrating Von Braun book about the history of rocketry. He worked with Frederick Ordway on a couple of books but these illustrations are very special and not many have seen them.

There are so many illustrations in the book that I wanted to share that I have split them into 2 postings, so look for the rest later this week.

Ordway, Frederick I and Wakeford, Ronald C. Illustrated by Lange, Harry H-K. Conquering the Sun’s Empire. New York : E.P. Dutton and Co. 128 pp. 23 cm. Cloth, DJ.

 The main point of this book seems to be discussing the conditions found on the planets in our solar system and how we will/could  explore them.

 First discussed was exploration of the Moon

 Next they start at Mercury and the conditions found there

 Then onto Venus.  It was still not clear what the surface of Venus was like beneath all the clouds.

Soon we will continue to Mars and out into the solar system.