Martin Aircraft Co. and Mars 1960

[magnus_z]

Artist Paul A. Rossi:

"His interest in aeronautical and space subjects stems from his service in the U.S. Air Force and work with Martin Aircraft Co., 1959-61, where he did advanced space design for proposed space exploratory vehicles and systems."
http://www.rossistudios.com/prossi2.html

 

[FutureSpaceTourist]

Wow, fantastic paintings. Call me old fashioned but much as I like modern computer animations, there's something much more evocative about pictures like these.

I see the prints have a Martin logo under them so hopefully someone can identify the concepts featured (I'm assuming they're not just from Rossi's imagination?)

 

[Pem Tech]

Beautiful..
Thanks for posting.

 

[Stargazer]

Wow, fantastic paintings. Call me old fashioned but much as I like modern computer animations, there's something much more evocative about pictures like these.

I see the prints have a Martin logo under them so hopefully someone can identify the concepts featured (I'm assuming they're not just from Rossi's imagination?)

Spaceship is exactly the same type on both illustrations.

 

[FutureSpaceTourist]

Spaceship is exactly the same type on both illustrations.

The ship on the left of the second image looks different to me; doesn't it have a near spherical end?

 

[Orionblamblam]

The ship with the spherical end was the "drive ship" that transported the Mars lander to Mars. I believe the lander docked to the circular feature at the front of the sphere.

 

[SAustin16]

Hello to All,

Question from the Peanut Gallery...

What was the purpose of the wings, canard, and what appear to be jet engines on these vehicles if they perform a rocket powered vertical descent and presumed ascent? Wouldn't this be a significant weight penalty? Maybe I'm missing something.

 

[Orionblamblam]

What was the purpose of the wings,...

Keep in mind when these paintings were made Mars was thought to have a substantial atmosphere... about 1/4 Earth-normal density at sea level. Thus wings would be handy for high-speed cruise flight for exploration, using the jet engines on the wingtips for thrust. Of course, Mars had no such atmosphere.

 

[SAustin16]

Thank you very much Scott. That explains it well.

 

[Grey Havoc]

Wow, fantastic paintings. Call me old fashioned but much as I like modern computer animations, there's something much more evocative about pictures like these.

I agree wholeheartedly.

I see the prints have a Martin logo under them so hopefully someone can identify the concepts featured (I'm assuming they're not just from Rossi's imagination?)

I think the suits at least were an actual Martin concept/project. I'll have a look around later (probably after the upcoming site transition) to see if I can find any hard data on them.

 

[XP67_Moonbat]

The layout of the ship with a round command hull vaguely reminds me of Discovery from 2001. Spherical command hull, comms relay amidships, propulsion back aft. It even has a little maintenance pod flying alongside it.

 

[Grey Havoc]

The layout of the ship with a round command hull vaguely reminds me of Discovery from 2001. Spherical command hull, comms relay amidships, propulsion back aft. It even has a little maintenance pod flying alongside it.

I noticed that too.

 

[magnus_z]

Artist Paul A. Rossi:

This is the prototype

http://www.astronautix.com/craft/earander.htm

 

[Orionblamblam]

Artist Paul A. Rossi:

This is the prototype

There is certainly a whole lot of resemblance in artistic composition, ain't there.

 

[jnpSacto]

My father worked for Martin Marietta in Denver when I was a child. Halfway through my fourth grade, we moved to California, where my dad worked for Lockheed in Sunnyvale (later Lockheed Martin) until he retired in 1990. I had these two images as framed posters in my teenage bedroom in the seventies! Dad also had a neat collection of other space exploration "photographs" in 8x10 glossy black and white format that has been lost to time. What a blast from the past!