Tuesday, October 26, 2010

We land on the Moon (1963) /Men on the Moon (1964)

This one was first published in the United States and then reprinted in England a year later. The sub-titles give it away. We Land on the Moon :Based on NASA'a Project Apollo (1963) and Men on the Moon: Based on America's Project Apollo (1964).

Raymond, John. Illustrations furnished by the NASA. We Land on the Moon: Based on NASA's Project Apollo. Long Island, NY: Child Guild Publications Inc. (94 p.) 29 cm.

Raymond, John. Men on the Moon : Based on America's Project Apollo. London : Collins. (96 p.) 29 cm.



the text is a mixture of NASA's planned effort to explore the Moon and a fictional narrative of what the first mission might be like. It is illustrated with some very strange aerospace contractor's illustrations along with the standard early Apollo illustrations. Presented as a text intended for school use (with a space term glossary) it really has to be seen.


You go from this early contactor's model to.....

...this illustration from a pulp science fiction story. And the pictures are all mixed together.

Are they orbiting Mars?


Of course you need your Moon Buggy!
This next one looks like a contractor's illustration except I think they are orbiting Mars.
And this one takes us back to the Moon. Wait a minute, wasn't this book supposed to be about the Apollo mission to the Moon?

OK, here is a contractor's painting of our favorite Moon vehicle, the un-manned "shopping cart." This book is not hard to find and is rewarding for the number of space art illustrations.

2 comments:

  1. Awesome post as usual John! There's even a link to Project SWORD and Spacex toys here - the red moon car originally apeared on the cover Rocket Stories in the US and is by famous artist Alex Schomberg. The design later became the MOLAB in the Spacex toy range and the Kellogs cereal gifts fleet. The Moon Crawler, my favourite piece of space art, originally apeared on the cover of Analog in 1962 [US] and 63 [UK]. It's by John Schoenherr and later featured in the Project SWORD annual [1968], became the Surveyor in the Space range [70] and was made into a kit by Imai around 70 as well. All good!

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  2. Ground control to Major Tom! I found this book fasinating back in grammar school. I went to PS-268 in brooklyn, NY.
    Lloyd Blankoff

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