“Mars: Explorers Wanted” Space Science cover

Ever wanted to be amongst the first humans to explore Mars?

In these fanciful covers, I placed the image of an astronaut in a space suit, pointing at the viewer in the iconic "I Want You" pose from World War I posters, on the video surface wall of a futuristic room. The image of the astronaut on the display reflects off the room's polished floor. The vignette sits atop an orange drop shadow, with "Mars: Explorers Wanted" printed beneath in a NASA-style font.

For postage I used the Mars stamp from the 1991 Space Exploration issue (Scott #2572) and a "U.S. enters World War I" single from the 1910s sheet of the Celebrate the Century series (Scott #3183i). Both are tied to the cover by a "UW-Madison Space Science Station" pictorial postmark from Madison, Wisconsin — depicting a playful image of planets, stars, and satellites — dated June 11, 2016.

The image of the astronaut pointing at the viewer was taken from an exhibit commissioned by NASA at the Kennedy Space Center Visitor's Complex in 2009, and the images are available in high-resolution versions online.