Prudential's Guide to Outer Space: The future belongs to those who prepare for it (1965)

 Prudential Insurance Company issued this space map in 1965. It uses elements from the Hammond space maps but seems unique in some of its images too.

 Unfortunately the best way to show it off is to show the panels one by one but you really miss the whole effect. This map came to mind because of the exotic space vehicles shown.

One of my favorites is this "Mars Expedition Spacecraft". I have never seen this as a proposed Mars design before and I am not sure how it would work. The delta wing shape seems unnecessary streamlining but it does look cool.

 This interplanetary craft is more suited to deep space. Has anyone else heard of "Empire"?

 This is the only image that seems directly re-used from the Hammond maps.

 This image also includes lots of details of current and future exploration of the Moon.

 These details of an extended expedition on the Moon are very interesting.

 "Moonship of the Future"? Look more like the moonship of 1955, someone used a little artistic license.

These images of the proposed Voyager probe to explore the planets and the Manned Orbiting Space Base are also cool.  A high value map that gives me (and you) lots of hardware to enjoy.

Journey to the Moon -NASA Facts 40-11/67 (1967)

 It is two for one day at Dreams of Space!  From 1965 we move to 1967 and this beautiful NASA poster showing how we would go to the Moon.

Here the the preliminaries to the landing.  I am sure I remember this from my classroom when I was 8 years old.

The paintings are beautiful of what they expected to see. And for all you tech-heads out there here is a nice diagram of the LEM.



 On the backside of the map is an enormous painting which I could only scan in pieces.  Whether you were alive to see it or are only looking back, it was an awesome moment in the history of the human race and sets us all to dream of what might be possible.

Man in Space: How man will get to the moon and back again (1965)

 Happy Moonday to you! Today is a map/poster from 1965 called "Man in Space". It is actually from this series by the Science service.

When you subscribed to the series (at least in one incarnation) you got this poster that went with this book. In it were stamps you could put on the poster to make it your own. I have blogged about this book before here:

http://dreamsofspace.blogspot.com/2010/08/man-in-space-science-service-1965.html

But I am in the midst of scanning lots of my space maps and thought this was a treasure that needed to be shared.

Here are copies of the stamps too. and each panel separate.

Hammond's Guide to the Exploration of Space (1958)

One of the great space posters of the late 1950's was the 1958 Hammond Space Map.  Produced by the Hammond Map Company it has gorgeous paintings of space vehicles.

Because the map is 29" x 42" inches it is hard to scan but I have been lucky enough to acquire a very nice copy as a part of this "Hammond's Space Kit" set:

The folded map looks like this (which may be the way most of you have seen it):

This map is almost a book within itself. The entire backside of the map is covered in text explaining the images on the front. Here is one shorter example of the text. The real treat however are the illustrations.

Any one of these mini-paintings would make a great screensaver (remember to click on the image to enlarge it). Here are the satellites:

Here you see the solar powered satellite circle the Earth.

The details and labeling make each image a fascinating combination of engineering design and romantic illustration.

And our favorites: the Space Taxi, Space Station, and Moon Base

I can't forget the rockets and astronauts can I?

All in all this map is a real treat that I am glad to share.  These illustrations were reused by Hammond in other publications including this one that I blogged about here:

http://dreamsofspace.blogspot.com/2010/05/space-mans-new-frontier-1962.html

Here is one last one to leave you with, The Interplanetary Ship Central Control. Be sure to read all of the labels since I am not exactly sure what a "Uloranoben" is supposed to do. Please comment if you have any idea.

"U.S. Space Hardware-- Today and Tomorrow" (1963)

This is a follow-up of sorts to one of my most popular posts of 2010:

The "Space Age 1959" poster: http://dreamsofspace.blogspot.com/2010/05/space-age-1959.html


 The full poster artwork was re-used in this 1963 article:

Dickenson, Fred. "U.S. Space Hardware ---Today and Tomorrow". New York Mirror Magazine, April 28, 1963 pp 9-10.

Since so many people enjoyed the poster this gave me a chance to have a slightly better scan of the art for you since the poster itself won't fit on my scanner :)

The article is interesting in how it justfies some of the vehicles depicted as a true reflection of possible future spaceflight. It also goes on to add some of the current spaceflight gadgets and ships that were being worked at the time.

So here is the higher quality scan (not quite the whole thing) but good enough to use as a background.

Apollo 16 poster with Casper the Friendly Ghost (1972)

OK this is definitely under the category of ephemera.  It is a 21 x 32 inch poster of Casper (the Friendly Ghost) flying along with the Apollo 16 Command module over the Moon.

It is probably an artist's proof from someone at Harvey Comics (the "owner's" of Casper)

You can just see the Harvey copyright on this.  The reason it was created was because the Command module of Apollo 16 was named Casper.  At some point the Apollo 16 astronuats were talking to some children about walking on the Moon and one remarked that the astronauts in their white suits looked like Casper the Friendly Ghost.  The crew decided to name their command module Casper to appeal to children's imaginations. The lunar module was called Orion. I have not be able to find out yet whether this poster was ever published. 

I do love the juxtaposition of fantasy and reality in this image.  Which is harder to believe: ghosts or that a manned ship flew to the moon? The only other information I have been able to dig up since I found this beauty is that a smaller image was issued as a button that I was able to find on a space collector's site.