Artists' renderings of space can be pretty impressive, and
sometimes hard to distinguish from the real thing when based on
hard science. But sometimes renderings based on the absence of scienceare far
These three illustrations were made by an artist at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in 1975 and reflect then-current
ideas about our neighbouring planet. Mars orbits the sun
at a greater distance than Earth and is much colder. It has a thin
atmosphere with a lot of carbon dioxide and is very dry. Not a good
place for Earthly life.
These images may have been influenced by scientists who thought Martian life might
have been silicon-based, rather than carbon-based as on Earth. The
stumpy life-forms are all fairly simple, and look a bit like
1970s-era home furnishings.