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One poster contains the history of space exploration

One poster contains the history of space exploration

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"From the Luna 2 in 1959 to the DSCOVR in 2015"

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It used to be that you'd buy an atlas of the world to hang on your wall, but now you're better off with a map of space exploration. This poster from Pop Chart Lab follows the rough path of every "orbiter, lander, rover, flyby, and impactor to ever slip the surly bonds of Earth’s orbit." Although it should be noted that it contains only successful missions. In space, there's no such thing as second place.

We've seen charts like this before, most notably National Geographic's fantastic Fifty Years of Exploration graphic (click here for a full size image produced by 5W Infographics). Pop Chart Lab's take is a little more cartoonish and uncluttered, and also contains a neat spotters' guide to probes and rovers, if you ever happen to find yourself on a sight-seeing tour of our solar system.

Details from The Chart of Cosmic Exploration. (Image credit: Pop Chart Lab)

The poster is available to preorder now, with shipping starting on Tuesday 22nd of March. Personally I'm holding out for my virtual reality space map, but this might do as a stopgap.