Future Space Travel and Alien Life as Seen in 1940

Frank R. Paul was an illustrator of pulp magazines in the science fiction field in the United States. He was influential in defining what both cover art and interior illustrations in the nascent science fiction pulps of the 1920s looked like. In 1940, Paul created this series of illustrations showing what man’s future might look like when we visit other planets (and Io).

Paul speculates on what life might be like on those other planetary bodies and shows astronauts driving “tractor cars” on Jupiter and lowering himself via cable to the surface of Saturn.