Artists’ renderings of space can be pretty impressive, and sometimes hard to distinguish from the real thing when based on hard science. But sometimes renderings based on the absence of science are far more interesting.

These three illustrations were made by an artist at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in 1975 and reflect then-current ideas about our neighboring planet. Mars orbits the sun at a greater distance than Earth and is much colder. It has a thin atmosphere with a lot of carbon dioxide and is very dry. Not a good place for Earthly life.

These images may have been influenced by scientists who thought Martian life might have been silicon-based, rather than carbon-based as on Earth. The stumpy life-forms are all fairly simple, and look a bit like 1970s-era home furnishings.

Image: NASA/JPL

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