50 years since the first man on the Moon -- how many to the first on Mars?

Phoenix lands on Mars. (NASA art)

It was an event which everyone more than a few years old at the time will remember -- publicity, discussion, school projects for months before it happened and then a listen to the radio for the live commentary on the actual landing.

The Moon, however, is only a 3 day hop from Earth -- the next celestial body deserving a manned landing is about 9 months away and a return mission involves years, not a couple of weeks. But there are those who think it can happen within the next 10 years.

There's plenty of pics and info about it on the net, but a concise summary is here.

1974 Jensen Interceptor

A spread from New Zealand Classic Car Magazine.

1953 Morris ad with ships

Quite a few of their products were exported to A/NZ, although in knocked down form for local assembly.  See the book The New Zealand Morris Minor story

when is a Boeing 747 not an aircraft? When it's a hostel

A former Singapore Airlines 747-212B built in 1976 based at the entrance to the Arlanda airport in Stockholm, Sweden. 

The last owner was Transjet which was based out of Arlanda, but it went bankrupt in 2002. The plane has remained at Arlanda since then.

It was converted into a hostel/hotel during 2008 and opened to customers in January 2009.

Info

More pics

'coal wagon at Cass' art

A tiny station on the Midland Line of the South Island as most readers will know. A famous Rita Angus painting showed the station structure itself, this looks at the iconic elements of the line. Painting by Brian Dahlberg (New Zealander, 1944- )

traffic on Spring Street, Los Angeles, 1930

Looking northeast at the intersection with 6th St.  In the distance is the Security Building from 1906, still there.  The Hayward on the left is still there, too, as are those streetlamps.

retro looking concept car

"The Eadon Green ‘Black Cuillin’ Coupe is a bespoke coach built by the luxury Grand Tourer by CURVE Vehicle Design"

1955 Dodge Lancer

(via classiccars.com)

1956 MG ad

Wellington City Council mobile library truck, 1944

Seen at the back of the back of the city central library, a Ford V8 COE. (WCC pic)