Attention Musk-eteers: We’ve got some new posters to play with. With all the recent talk of Tesla super-batteries and psychotically fast Hyperloop trains, it’s easy to forget that SpaceX CEO Elon Musk has a foot in the race to the Red Planet. But the latest additions to the SpaceX photo gallery have our eyes on the skies once again: Badass vintage-inspired Mars travel posters.
Like the NASA exoplanet ads before them, the Mars posters portray an optimistic future in a ’50s style that’s perfectly timed for the upcoming (squee) release of Disney’s Tomorrowland. Of course, there are still some major kinks in the mission-to-mars plan (like, you know, incinerating everyone on impact) but when it comes to campaign art, we’re giving ol’ Muskie an A+. Jet packs, spandex, black rubber gloves … all we’re missing here are ray guns.
Valles Marineris is a canyon system that runs along the Martian equator. It’s seven-miles deep (that’s four-times deeper than the Grand Canyon), but fear not: SpaceX clearly plans to supply all space-cationers with jet packs for maximum fun. (A brief pause to remind yourself that we have jet packs).
We can only assume that by immortalizing Olympus, Musk is leaking clues about the volcano lair he promised us. At 374 miles in diameter (approximately the same size as the state of Arizona), Olympus is the largest shield volcano in our solar system. If you’re only going to explore one poster in high resolution, this would be the one. See those tiny people in each gondola? Of course you don’t. Download the damn poster.
If this works, I’m treating myself to a volcano lair. It’s time.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 15, 2015
The series also features Mars’ moons, Phobos and Deimos, which are among the smallest known. But this extraterrestrial destination won’t be around forever. Phobos, the larger of the lunar pair, is actually spiraling inward and expected to break apart or crash into Mars sometime in the next 50 million years. Get it while it’s hot.
To view the posters in their 7,000-pixel glory, head to the gallery.
Images: SpaceX
