Chris Calle (American, B. 1961) "Spacemobile on the Moon" Signed lower left. Original Mixed Media painting on Illustration Board. Provenance: Collection of James A. Helzer (1946-2008), Founder of Unicover Corporation. This painting was published on the Fleetwood First Day Cover for the U.S. 45c Surface Rover 20th UPU Congress Series stamp issued November 27, 1989. Imagine a young moon child, nose pressed against space station window glass, eagerly awaiting his birthday gift from grandma. A message transmitted to the computer in his playroom told him the gift would come today. Now, his heart races with excitement as he sees the mailman's lunar rover making its way across the rough terrain in the soft light reflected from the huge globe of earth. This scene may seem farfetched, but a popular plan for establishing colonies in outer space begins with a mining operation on the moon to supply the raw materials necessary for building space stations farther away. Among the moon's resources are aluminum and titanium for structural shells, silicon for solar cells, silica for making glass, and oxygen -- unlikely though it may seem, this element is found in moonrock -- for life-support systems and rocket propellant. If a colony was established to extract these treasures, "moon miners" would undoubtedly want to keep in touch with family and friends back on earth, and earthbound grandmas would want to send packages to their grandchildren on the moon. Obviously, some kind of a postal system would be a necessity. Mail would reach the moon via spacecraft, but once on the moon's surface a lunar rover, perhaps like the one illustrated on this painting, would take the place of the trusty, earthbound mail jeep to deliver the letters and packages. Image Size: 16.75 x 14.5 in. Overall Size: 23.25 x 20 in. Unframed. (B12165)