Could the inspiration for Explorer 12 lie deep in the aspirations of NASA?
The desire to traverse the hidden Earth and distant Moon in all-terrain vehicles has a long and honorable history in both science and art.
Perhaps my favourite painting in this vein is John Schoenherr's Moon Crawler.
With its balloon tyres and grim determination it embodies the pioneering spirit needed for exploration.
In 2011 John's son Ian was kind enough to allow Moonbase to publish his Dad's two preliminary sketches for this painting for the first time.
You can read more about them when they first appeared on MC in 2011
Above two images the property of Ian Schoenherr.
Awesome artwork! Yep, as you say, the Moon Crawler totally embodies the pioneering spirit, Woodsy. Nice to read the link from 2011 :)
ReplyDeleteIt is beautiful isn't it Tone. The main picture was used as the cover of an edition of Analog magazine in the Sixties.
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