Giant Freakin Robot

While it’s anybody’s guess when it will actually happen, many agree that the next big stepping stone in human space exploration will be landing a human crew on Mars. Despite the many hurdles to be surmounted, there are plenty here on Mother Earth who are studying and planning for that eventual day when we step foot on the red planet. Reuters reports (via Stuff) that Austrian scientists earlier this week used an icy Alpine cave as a Mars stand-in to test equipment that could someday be crucial in any manned mission to our red-hued neighbor.

Astrium, the aerospace division of the European Aeronautic Defense and Space Company (EADS), has developed concepts for Vinci, a luxury space plane about the size of a business jet which will give a few lucky tourists a chance to experience zero-g and suborbital flight.

Vinci will take off and land like a normal plane, but will ignite a methane and liquid oxygen rocket engine and propulsion system when it reaches about 12 kilometers above the surface.

Check out their video after the jump for a glimpse of what you could enjoy if you ever decide to blow your entire life savings in one day. (Or rather, the two hours that the trip actually lasts.)

Over the half-century of its existence, NASA has provided the world with some amazing images. Whether it’s the dusty surface of Mars, the stunning rings of Saturn, or those first images from the Moon, with our home hanging in the distance, NASA has been a window for the average person into the wonders that lay beyond our atmosphere. Because they serve as our eyes in the great beyond, many astronauts have had to become amateur photographers, on top of all their other duties. After all, nobody wants to see all the pictures from the ISS returned with some dude’s thumb blocking out half the frame. While it’s not a duty most of us automatically think of when we think “astronaut,” former Space Shuttle Discovery commander Captain Alan Poindexter has taken to The Luminous Landscape to provide some insights into how those amazing images are taken.

Despite bearing little resemblance to daily life here in the 21st century, there’s a certain undeniable charm in pulp science fiction artwork from the genre’s golden age. Sure, you have silly elements such as bikini-wearing, bubble-helmeted glamour gals being carried off to fulfill the lusty whims of green aliens with too many arms. But even the most fantastic of old-style pulp art spoke to a time when we as a people were excited and (overly) optimistic about mankind’s future in space. Surely we’d have bases on the Moon and Mars by the time we reached that far-flung, fantastic date of 2012!

Well…not so much. But it’s nice to remember a time when we were certain our future would be filled with flying cars and weekend trips to Saturn. Artist Steve Thomas has captured exactly that spirit in a series of faux-vintage travel posters he’s created to “advertise” excursions to various scenic destinations throughout the solar system. They are, quite frankly, gorgeous. Even better, you can buy prints of them starting at less than twelve bucks a pop.