Elon Musk is well known for his dream of one day going to Mars through SpaceX and having entire colonies on the planet.
It's all well and good to simply want to go colonize a new planet, but it's impossible without excitement from the public, too. In order to help create that public excitement, SpaceX has released a number of posters that look like travel posters from the 1950s.
The three images were posted to the company's Flickr account, and they each show Mars as a planet that could be visited tomorrow, not in the distant future.
The first poster shows a man with a jetpack flying over Valles Marineris, a 2,500-mile stretch of canyons on the surface of Mars toward his family, which is sitting next to some type of futuristic airship. The systems of canyons are 120 miles wide and up to 23,000 feet deep, and experts suggest that the canyons are a result of ancient tectonic. Not only that, but the canyons are one of the largest set of canyons in the solar system.
The second shows a man and a woman looking out a window at Phobos and Deimos, the two moons of Mars. The moons are named after the horses that pulled the chariot for the Greek god Ares. These moons always have the same face facing toward Mars and are tidally locked.
In the third poster, a man and woman are looking out the window of a space-gondola looking up at Olympus Mons, the mountain on Mars that is three times the size of Mount Everest. Olympus Mons is the tallest peak we know of in our solar system. Of course, only the most daring adventurers should try and scale Olympus Mons.
Of course, none of the posters really depict the planet as a utopia for human settlement, but it's commendable that the company is trying to show the planet as an exotic tourist destination.
The posters are certainly good-looking, especially with the vintage feel that is really popular right now. Of course, it's simply a publicity move for the company, but there's nothing wrong with that, especially after Elon Musk had to deny allegations that he berated an employee for missing an event to witness the birth of his child.
Despite the publicity, it's obviously unlikely that we will see any cities being started on Mars anytime soon, however, it might inspire some excitement from the next generation of space travellers.
Photo: SpaceX Photos | Flickr
