A space plane launches from a half-completed space station, in McCall's classic poster art for the 1968 MGM film 2001: A Space Odyssey. The image is not only a startlingly accurate depiction of the future of space travel, but a powerful symbol of hope, a visual affirmation that humanity has the resources and ingenuity to prosper and thrive in the century to come. (Courtesy MGM/Turner Broadcasting System, Inc.)

McCall updated the theme of his famous 2001 painting, nearly two decades later, for a report of the National Commission on Space. Here, an aerospace plane approaches a spaceport in Earth orbit. In the upper right, a lunar transport vehicle is returning from the moon. NASA projects that the first generation of space stations will be operational within a decade.

America's civilian space effort is paralleled by a military space program, focused on research, reconnaissance, and defense. For the U.S. military, Robert McCall has prepared a number of conceptual illustrations of projected weapons systems, based on state-of-the-art defense technology.

Here, a nuclear-powered beam weapon strikes a target from an orbital position high above the Earth. The red cone at the left end of the weapon is its nuclear power supply. The brightly glowing cylinder is discharging waste heat and radiation. At the middle of the beam are two swiveling rocket pods designed to defend the weapon itself from attack.

NASA plans a new series of missions to the moon, beginning in the next decade with unmanned robot probes and culminating with manned missions by the year 2005. By 2010, NASA hopes to establish working lunar bases such as the one depicted here, to perform scientific and industrial missions.

Between the orbits of the Earth and the moon are areas called "Libration points" or "Lagrange points," where the gravitational pulls of the two worlds cancel each other out. Here, spacecraft require less energy to construct and launch. In this painting, astronauts service a transfer vehicle bound for Mars at a spaceport located at Libration Point 1.

Survival on the moon will require the basic materials needed to sustain life: hydrogen, oxygen, carbon, and nitrogen, to produce air, water, and organic materials. The expense of lifting such materials out of Earth's gravity well will drive the effort to mine these compounds on the moon itself. The vehicle in the foreground is a "lunar combine," powered by a solar antenna, which tills the fine lunar dust, forcing it into an extracting chamber where gases are separated from silicon and other minerals. Gas cylinders are stored to the left. To the right is a vast "solar farm" beaming microwave energy back to Earth.

Because the moon has no atmosphere and no strong seismic activity, it is an ideal site for an interstellar telescope. The observatory shown here has been placed in a sheltered trench to protect the sensitive lens from the sun's radiation.

A regatta of "solar sailboats," powered by the sun's energy, glides effortlessly through the frictionless void of space. Painted by Robert McCall in 1960, this imaginative scene is now becoming a reality. The "Columbus 500," an international solar sailboat race with competitors from the United States, Europe, and Asia, is scheduled to take place in the fall of 1992, in celebration of the International Space Year and the European discovery of the New World five centuries ago.

An interplanetary transfer vehicle leaves Earth orbit for Mars. Prepared for NASA, this painting shows the type of spacecraft that will make the journey to other worlds in the second decade of the next century.

Current NASA objectives call for a manned landing on Mars by the year 2015, preceded by practice missions on the lunar surface. This drawing, pad of a new series for NASA, depicts an early Mars outpost. At left, a Mars rover returns to base camp from an exploratory expedition. At right, remote-controlled robot surveyors examine an outcropping of rock. In the background, a Mars Lander returns to an orbiting transfer vehicle.

Although the Viking missions to Mars did not discover life, they did find complex organic molecules capable of sustaining life. Early in the planet's history, water flowed on the surface of Mars, cutting deep channels in its surface. One of the most important scientific objectives of the next series of Mars missions will be to sample the soil near these channels to search for evidence of primitive life-forms that may have flourished on Mars millions of years ago.

Two astronauts perform an EVA from their Earth-Mars transfer vehicle. Phobos, the larger of Mars's two moons, is at upper left. Stations on Mars's moons may be used for communications, materials transfer, and observation of the planet.

A Mars colonist salutes a landing craft returning to space from a large Mars base, circa AD 2025. The bases may be supplied by Earth-Mars shuttles that cycle in permanent orbits between the two worlds, bringing vital materials and relief crews every few months.

Between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter lies the asteroid belt. Thousands of large asteroids, and hundreds of millions of smaller bodies, lie within the belt. Because the asteroids are rich in metals, they may become a source of elements used in the construction of interplanetary spacecraft, as well as materials needed to sustain permanent colonies in deep space. From the asteroids, missions can be launched to the large moons orbiting Jupiter, Saturn, and the other outer planets.

By the middle of the twenty-first century massive space stations such as this docking and repair station may be deployed in orbit high above the Earth. Experts in space development believe that full utilization of the resources of space will require a partnership between the world's governments and the private sector.

Though the financial risks are great, the rewards will be far greater: unlimited solar energy and an abundance of mineral wealth and organic compounds. Even the adverse conditions of space, such as radiation, lack of atmosphere, near vacuum, and weightlessness, provide opportunities for scientific research and industrial use.