Scientific Illustration

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  • sagansense:

Image: One NASA illustrator’s 1975 vision of what Martian life may have looked like
Is This What Life on Mars Might Have Looked Like? A great find from the NASA archives! This composite of three artists’ renderings from 1975 may have only been wish fulfillment for an unnamed JPL artist; however, the landscape and the rendered shapes took into account what was known about Mars at that time, a year before the first Viking landing.
“Life on Mars” was envisioned as low to the ground, symmetrical and simple. The artist drew silicon-based life forms, probably coached by others, perhaps scientists, who had thought about such possibilities. Peculiar saucer-like shapes stood only slightly above ground level, root-like structures reached outward for growth resources; a bundle of cones faced many directions for heat, light or food. Instead of reality, the images embodied the artist’s hope and anticipation of what future Martian exploration would find.
Image Credit: NASA/JPL

    sagansense:

    Image: One NASA illustrator’s 1975 vision of what Martian life may have looked like

    Is This What Life on Mars Might Have Looked Like?

    A great find from the NASA archives! This composite of three artists’ renderings from 1975 may have only been wish fulfillment for an unnamed JPL artist; however, the landscape and the rendered shapes took into account what was known about Mars at that time, a year before the first Viking landing.

    “Life on Mars” was envisioned as low to the ground, symmetrical and simple. The artist drew silicon-based life forms, probably coached by others, perhaps scientists, who had thought about such possibilities. Peculiar saucer-like shapes stood only slightly above ground level, root-like structures reached outward for growth resources; a bundle of cones faced many directions for heat, light or food. Instead of reality, the images embodied the artist’s hope and anticipation of what future Martian exploration would find.

    Image Credit: NASA/JPL

    (via somuchscience)

    Tagged: art still life painting 1940s william nicholson mushrooms

    Posted on July 29, 2012 via sagan|sense with 120 notes

    Source: sagansense

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      One NASA illustrator’s 1975 vision of what Martian life may have looked like Is This What Life on Mars Might Have Looked...
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      YESS!!
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    43. roselerner reblogged this from scientificillustration and added:
      Hey, that’s not what silicon-based life looks like! You can’t fool me, I’ve seen Star Trek!
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