Colliers Part 7 : June 25, 1953

The 7th part of the 8 part Colliers "Man will conquer space soon!" series has been put online in the July/August 2013 issue of IAAA Houston Newsletter "Horizons". This one covers the Collier’s magazine space articles from June 25, 1953,

The Baby Space Station: First step in the conquest of space

There are also a couple of reprints of illustrations published in this blog!

These are the best digital versions of these illustrations you will ever see. Be sure to check them out.

http://www.aiaahouston.org/newsletter/

About Moon and About Rocket (1966)

 

 

 This is actually the second edition of this 1964 Russian book that I have already blogged about here:

http://dreamsofspace.blogspot.com/2011/03/russian-space-book-1964.html

So I will try to post images from this book that you may not have seen before.

 

 

I like the abstract quality of these drawings. 

 

This has a great deal of resemblance to the Apollo Command module configuration.

 

Finally a reminder that at the time it was still a race to the moon.

Major Jet's Magic Paint Set: Everything you need to color exciting pictures of Major Jet's experimental rockets (1952)

In the early 1950s a breakfast cereal called "Sugar Jets" featured premiums around Major Jet.  I had posted about a 1954 premium here:

http://dreamsofspace.blogspot.com/2013/02/sugar-jets-major-jet-filmovision-1954.html


The title of this one: "Major Jet's Magic Paint Set: Everything you need to color exciting pictures of Major Jet's experimental rockets (1952)" is almost longer than the actual 4 page item.

It consisted of the cover, 3 pages you could "color", and a sheet of water color paints that you could use a wet brush on.

 The rocket designs are not that innovative but the illustrations show rockets (orbiting?) above the earth's surface along with the caption promising that rockets would be flying to the moon in 20 years

 
This caption also points out that "...by the time you are grown-up rockets will be as common as our airliners of today. Perhaps you will even hop a rocket to Mars or Venus"

Happy Jets!!!

P.S. Are those kids in the cockpit?

Project Go! : Big space punchouts for little astronauts (1963)

Sorry for the lag between posts, sometimes work does come first. So in order to catch up I will try a series of very short posts. These are mostly covers of items I own.

Project Go! Big Space Punchouts for Little Astronauts (1963) is a nice crossover between fact and fiction. Learn how Astro Johnny and Cosmo Jo explore the moon! I love the cover and I had scanned a set of round-trip tickets to the moon from the inside of the book.

Eagle Has Landed: The story of lunar exploration (1970) (part 1)

This is another of those post-Apollo 11 books which takes advantage of the aerospace industry and NASA publicity stills and paintings regarding the next lunar expeditions.  While you probably have seen some of these I like how it presents for children the idea that landing on the Moon was just the beginning. Since there are a lot of illustrations I will make this a "two parter."

Dwiggins, Dwight. Eagle has Landed: The Story of Lunar Exploration. San Carlos, CA: Golden Gate Jr. Books. (80 p.) 28 cm. 1970

This book describes the Moon landings, the story of Apollo, what lunar geologists were expecting to find and what is beyond Apollo.  The photographs are pretty standard but the section "Beyond Apollo" shows these wild ideas. 

First off : Space Stations of the Future!!!

"Talking Through Space" in Boy's Own Paper (January 1962)

This magazine was published monthly in Britain and features an article by Britain's favorite astronomer and space guru of the time, Patrick Moore.

At the time satellites seemed very new and learning how they worked was on every boy's agenda.

The magazine included both non-fiction and fiction stories. This particular story caught my eye with its "weightless cow" Certainly not something you see every day.

Let's Find Out About Mars (1966)

Beyond going to the Moon there have always been dreams of exploring other planets.  While Mercury and Venus were the destination of some of the first planetary probes, the real excitement has always been about Mars.  Mars was a place that it seemed likely that someone could actually visit.  Although there are less books about the exploration of Mars, it continues to be many space flight advocates' goal.  I spent the July 20th, 2013 Lunar landing anniversary listening to Buzz Aldrin discuss his plans for Mars exploration via "recyclers".

Knight, David C. Illustrated by Miller, Don. Let's Find Out About Mars. New York: Franklin Watts Inc. (55 p.) 22 cm. 1966

This book illustrated one of the many plans in the 1960s for placing people on Mars. It was stimulated by the 1965 Mariner 4 mission to Mars. If you are interested in a history of these plans I highly recommend : Humans to Mars: Fifty Years of Mission Planning 1950-2000 by David S.F. Portree. NASA SP-2001-4521.

 

These plans look like they reflect the existing Saturn 5 hardware and the possible planned lunar habitats.

 

Mariner 4 confirmed that Mars was a desolate place and exploration would consist of coping with a hostile environment.

Ultimately the goal of Mars exploration is to help humans find another home. The urge to homestead new places, and "conquer" new lands seems at the heart of many of our dreams of Mars.  The final illustration seems to reflect that no matter where humans go there will always be the nuclear family around the kitchen table.