Possible Exploration Programs – NASA, Pat Rawlings (1986) – Space Age Poster Print

Pat Rawlings’s Possible Exploration Programs presents a vision of human exploration on Phobos, the larger and innermost moon of Mars. Created for NASA in 1986, the artwork shows astronauts working beside a mobile propellant-production facility on the moon’s rugged surface, with Mars looming enormous in the background. The facility uses a nuclear reactor to extract water from Phobos’s material and convert it into liquid hydrogen and oxygen, illustrating an early concept for producing rocket propellant from resources found beyond Earth.

The concept reflects an important idea in long-range space exploration studies: using extraterrestrial resources to support further exploration rather than transporting everything from Earth. Phobos was considered potentially useful as a staging location for Mars missions because propellant manufactured there could support spacecraft traveling to and from the Martian system. Rawlings’s vivid rendering, particularly the enormous red disk of Mars dominating the background, turns what was essentially a study of future mission infrastructure into a quintessential piece of 1980s Space Age imagery.

 

🖨️ Print features:

– Made with museum-grade archival paper for excellent printing fidelity and vibrant color reproduction

– Paper weight: 189 g/m2

– For indoor use only

– Care instructions: If the print does gather any dust, you may wipe it off gently with a clean, dry cloth.

– Please note: Due to the production process of these posters, please allow for slight size deviations with a tolerance +/- 1/16″

 

🚚 Fulfillment, Shipping, and Return Policy:

– Printed and shipped from the U.S.

– Ships in a sturdy mailing tube, frame not included

– As our items are unique and made to order, we can only accept a return or exchange in the event that an item arrives damaged or misprinted. We cannot accept returns if you order the wrong size or change your mind. Any return requests must be made within 14 days of receiving the order.

 

💬 Questions? Looking for something else, or want something in a different size? Feel free to reach out anytime; we’ll see what we can do!