Futuristic, detailed, and very precise, we believe this science-fiction inspired imagination of cosmos exploration to have been created for cover use in the British magazine Understanding Science, a Sampson Low Publication. Geared to the high school audience, and part of the ongoing space race effort to get youths interested in science during the Cold War, the image seems to dramatize a late 1960s/early 1970s satellite mission to Mars, as the satellite appears to be Pioneer 10 or Pioneer 11. This delightful gouache on illustration board cover painting is unsigned, and likely the work of a British commercial artist. The painting is handsomely matted and framed under glass.
