1940 onwards – Miscellaneous Lunar and Off World Rovers with Manipulators Concepts

Most of the unmanned Lunar and Martian rover concepts were designed to use manipulator arms for sampling rocks and surface material. John Schoenherr’s (1935-2010) fabulous Moon Crawler painting pictured above, which he painted in 1961 for the cover of Analog magazine that year. Source: Project SWORD     Project S.W.O.R.D. (SPACE WORLD ORGANISATION FOR RESEARCH …

1965 onwards – Miscellaneous Lunar and Off World Walker Concepts

4-Legged robot space explorer. Robot Rescuing an Astronaut on the Lunar Surface. Robot reminiscent of Odex-1. Legged robot turning a valve.   Model Lunar walker from the French children's book "Permieres Vacances Sur La Lune" [“First Vacation on the Moon”], Marc Heimer – 1967. Above: Prediction of life on the moon c1965. Illustration from the …

1965-8 – Space Pod – 2001: A Space Odyssey – Clarke (British) / Kubrick (American)

EVA Pod – The EVA Pod is a fictional spacecraft used for extra-vehicular activity seen in the movie 2001: A Space Odyssey. The Jupiter spacecraft Discovery One carries three of these small, one-man maintenance vehicles. [EVA – Extra-Vehicular Activity i.e. activity outside of the prime space vehicle.] Film stage. Detail of manipulator arms. Illustrations by …

1965 – Manned Space Pod with Manipulators (Concept) – Boeing (American)

Found in the old Boeing Historical archive some years back was a piece of artwork dated 20 Dec 1965 illustrating a “work pod” for orbital use. Space Pod sourced from here. Compare with later 1976 Boeing Space Tug concept here. See other early Space Teleoperators here. See other early Lunar and Space Robots here.  

1964-5 – Robot Art – Enrique Castro-Cid (Chilean)

Anthropomorphicals I and II. 1964. Plexiglass and Aluminum. 65in. x 20in. x 24in. Richard Feigen Gallery, New York. 1965. Source: Beyond Modern Sculpture – Jack Burnham 1968 It would be misleading to classify [Hans] Haacke as an artist primarily devoted to applying cybernetic principles to mechanical artifacts; rather his interests are in those cyclical processes …