“The Martian” ~retro-futurism

I officially bow down to the artists working at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL). Also, thanks to NASA for recognizing and celebrating the power of art like this. 

These STUNNING posters can all be downloaded directly from JPL (in hi-res). And their mere existence is reason enough for a new Wednesday theme: World Tour Wednesday. 

Stay tuned for some more awesome posters that are out of this world* and worth touring

- Summer

*too easy?

Good ol’ Rory

Is this Ellington Field in Houston? Because I know they mounted Space Shuttle Independence (NOT the one from Micheal Bay’s Armageddon) onto Shuttle Carrier Aircraft 905 a few years back after they moved Explorer (NOT the one from Alfonso Cuaron’s Gravity) to Houston and rechristened it with the name we all know today. Or this might just be one of the SCAs when they were very much in operation. This is still a cool picture.

One hell of a parking lot.

I call this one "Terraluna."

Cool stuff

Check out this really great rare 1960s documentary (10-min) about @NASA engineers involvement in Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY 

(hat tip to OnePerfectShot for finding this)

TURDIS

Look, It’s Doctor Poo

Rare double impact crater on Mars. Such features are thought only to from simultaneous impacts.

via reddit

“Perhaps Carl Sagan’s life’s work is just now bearing new fruit. He inspired enough of the Earth’s citizens to take our place in space seriously; to know and appreciate the fragility of our world; that we have so far avoided a nuclear weapon war; that we started thinking about the climate of Mars and especially the climate of Venus as compared with the climate of Earth; that his landmark television series is being updated and broadcast in new generations. There are more science websites today than ever in history; more science interest than in the last 30 years. Perhaps this new fruit will help us - dare I say it - change the world. Perhaps we’ve begun a new enlightened era of scientific discovery that will soon include people from everywhere. Although it has taken decades, Carl Sagan may yet save the world as we know it.” – Bill Nye The Science Guy speaking at The Library of Congress during ‘A Celebration of Carl Sagan’ to celebrate the official opening of the Seth MacFarlane Collection of the Carl Sagan and Ann Druyan Archive to the public at the Library of Congress. [x]

big ben just fucking explodes