The dream of space travel and exploration of the solar system took a great leap forward in the 1950's with the publication of photo-realistic illustrations that pictured man's conquest of space.

This piece is meant to capture the look and feel of works by those early space artists like Chesley Bonestell, Rolf Klep, Fred Freeman and others that interpretated the hard math and physics and put to paper the dreams of such engineers and scientists as Robert Goddard, Werner von Braun, and Willy Ley.   A decade or two later thousands of NASA personnel would put men into Earth orbit and then on the Moon - a prelude to accomplishing and continuing those earlier dreams of space travel and exploration.

The nuclear-powered 'Mars-Liner' pictured here floats above Mars prior to a landing on the Red Planet and is reminscent of those early interpretations of how man might accomplish such feats. This view reflects much of what we surmised at the time of how Mars and it's inner satellite, Phobos, might appear close-up.

The methods and equipment believed to be the answer to man's exploration of space and other planets some fifty-years ago may appear somewhat fanciful now a half-century later - but those earlier theories, the math, and the physics necessary to accomplish man's dreams proved to be a solid foundation.

And those romantic views of needle-nosed, winged space-craft encouraged generations of young scientists and engineers to take up the challenge of sending man to space, to the Moon, soon to Mars, and someday to other planets - and even to other star systems.