There aren't exactly any offices on Mars yet, but it seems that NASA is already looking for abled men and women willing to work and live on the Red Planet.
The American space agency has just released a series of World War I-styled posters aimed at recruiting individuals who would like to take part in future space missions to Mars.
While NASA is still working on various details needed for such an endeavor, it hopes that the ads will help popularize the idea of possibly colonizing the Red Planet and other points of interest in deep space.
The NASA recruitment posters were first commissioned by the agency in 2009 for a space exhibit at the visitor's complex of the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. They feature "advertisements" for various job openings, such as for farmers, teachers, technicians and surveyors for human colonies on Mars.
Some of the highlights of living on Mars mentioned in the posters include being able to explore Valles Marineris, which is considered to be the largest canyon in the Solar System; mining for minerals and other resources on the Red Planet's moon Phobos; and even growing various fruits and vegetables in Martian summer gardens.
However, interested parties might have to wait a while longer before they can sign up for these Martian occupations. Based on NASA's three-step "Journey to Mars," the space agency doesn't expect to send manned missions to the Red Planet until 2030.
Space Tourism
This is not the first time NASA made use of colorful ads to promote the concept of life outside of Earth. In February, the space agency released a series of prints to advertise what it would be like to travel to distant planets beyond our own galaxy.
Known as "Visions of the Future", the space tourism posters were created by artists working at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) design studio. The ads feature exoplanets that agency scientists have identified over the years and what NASA envisions space tourists can do while spending time there.
These include experiencing the high gravity of super Earth HD 40307g, staying at the futuristic Cloud 9 observatory on Venus, mining for water on the dwarf planet Ceres, marveling at the beautiful auroras on Jupiter and exploring the water world beneath the frozen surface of its moon Europa.
The Mars recruitment ads are free to download at NASA's website, while the Visions of the Future posters are available at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory's website.
