“LA LUNE”

Cette carte de LA LUNE vous est offerte par le journal SPIROU

1968  

Published by: “LE JOURNAL SPIROU” in 1968

Artist:   JACQUES DEVOS 

                   (1924-1992)

DESCRIPTION:

Created by Jacques Devos, a Belgian artist, this 1968 original pictorial map of the Moon presents the history of space exploration from an objective perspective, celebrating both Americans and Soviet achievements.

Depicting both hemispheres of the Moon, the side facing Earth (labeled here as side visible) is situated on the left side of the sheet, while the side facing away from Earth, known as the far side of the Moon, or the dark side of the Moon, is on the right, with the two hemispheres surrounded by illustration of space vehicles and astronauts Frank Borman, James Lovell, William Anders, and cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin, the first human in space.

Only 18% of the far side of the Moon is ever  visible from Earth.

Humanity had not observed the remaining 82% until 1959 when the Soviet Luna 3 space probe photographed the far side for the first time. Borman, Lovell and Anders were the first humans to view the entire far side of the Moon when Apollo 8 orbited the Moon in 1968. This side of the Moon is covered in impact craters and very few lunar Maria. Maria, peaks and other physical features are labeled on the side facing the Earth, as are the sites of the American Orbiter Surveyor. 

Ranger landing and crash sites are noted, as are the sites of the Soviet Luna program. Latitude and longitude lines are also overlaid on the Moon’s surface.

SPACE VEHICLES:

Illustrations of vehicles used in space exploration frame the two central maps of the Moon.

  

In the upper left corner, the first program references is the Surveyor, which was a NASA program that lasted from June 1966 to January 1968 that sent seven robotic spacecraft to the Moon. The program goal was to demonstrate the feasibility of soft landings on the Moon.

Next to the Surveyor lander is Lunik, or Luna 33, a Soviet spacecraft launched in 1959 and was the first-ever man-made object to photograph the far side of the Moon. 

In the upper right corner is an illustration of a Soviet Vostok rocket, which was the family of rocket uses to launch Sputnik 1, the first artificial satellite, and Yuri Gagarin’s first crewed mission to space, and the Lunar Excursion Module, which was used by Apollo astronauts to land on the Moon.

The Soyuz capsule in the lower right corner was the first designed for the Soviet space program in the 1960s and remains in use today, ferrying crew members and supplies to the International Space Station. 

In the middle between the two lunar hemispheres is an illustration of a Saturn V rocket, which was used by NASA between 1967 and 1973 to launch the Apollo missions and Skylab. 

Luna 9, a Soviet unmanned space mission, is illustrated on the lower right and was the first spacecraft to achieve a soft landing on the Moon.

Ranger 7, in the lower left corner, was the first American space probe to transmit close images of the lunar surface back to Earth. 

It achieved a lunar-impact trajectory and transmitted images in the final minutes of its flight before crashing into the Moon.

SIZE:   750mm x 1000mm   

CONDITION:

In perfect condition.