Long before rovers roamed the planet and space telescopes captured high-resolution images of deep space, NASA created concept art as a means to illustrate its missions. Since the early days, our understanding of the universe has progressed and the method of drawing has evolved, but the excitement of looking at the concept art hasn’t faded. Looking back at NASA’s space development history through concept art.
First, NASA released a cross section of the Mercury spacecraft in April 1959, shortly after it was founded. Project Mercury was conducted from 1959 to 1963 to demonstrate that humans could live and work in space, paving the way for future manned exploration.
In Project Gemini, conducted from 1962 to 1966 following Project Mercury, a large spacecraft was built to accommodate two astronauts. These spacecraft were used for rendezvous and docking verification between technologies required for the Apollo program targeting the lunar surface.
In the mid-1960s, NASA was already contemplating spacewalks to repair satellites in low Earth orbit. At that time, you can see an illustration of an astronaut repairing NASA’s Orbiting Astronomical Observatory.
It is a concept painting depicting the famous Apollo 13 mission in 1970, when the moon landing did not take place.
The 1975 Apollo Soyuz test project was the first joint space program between the United States and the Soviet Union. Millions of people around the world watched as the two spacecraft docked and smiling astronauts shook hands in low Earth orbit.
Launched on October 16, 1975, the first Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellites (GOES) tracked surface storms from geostationary orbit and predicted global weather patterns. This program continues today.
A work depicting one of the Voyager probes launched by NASA in 1977 also draws attention. Voyager 1 is currently the most distant man-made object from Earth and is expected to continue communicating until around 2025.
There is also a concept series that describes a typical space shuttle mission sequence. The Space Shuttle operated from 1981 to 2011 and made 135 flights.
Launched in 1983, IRAS, an infrared astronomical satellite, was the first space telescope to probe infrared wavelengths, but the mission lasted only 10 months.
There is also a CG image that depicts the International Space Station (ISS). Launched in 1998, the ISS is expected to operate until 2030.
NASA’s Mars Odessey was launched in 2001 and scanned the composition of the surface of Mars. Data from the probe have suggested that there is a lot of water ice in the polar regions of Mars.
Spirit and two Opportunity rovers landed on Mars in 2004. The purpose of the mission is to find evidence of water in Martian rocks and soil, and NASA is ready for the Curiosity and Perseverance rovers.
In July 2005, NASA’s Deep Impact spacecraft launched a 360 kg impactor at Comet Tempel 1 and struck it. The impact formed a crater and produced a huge amount of debris. In this experiment, comet Tempel 1 appeared to be dustier and less icy than expected.
NASA’s Phoenix spacecraft was the first to land on the Martian poles in 2008. It was designed to dig below the surface in anticipation of water and ice detection, but it was short-lived. Related information this placecan be found in
