Please take me to space: Letters to the Hayden Planetarium

In 1950, as part of promoting a new exhibit on space exploration, the Hayden Planetarium in New York City put out the word that it was accepting applications from would-be space tourists. Over the next few years, hundreds of letters poured in. This is one of them, written by a man who would like to get to Mars early in order to corner the hot dog market there.

You can view several other letters at the American Museum of Natural History's website. They're equally delightful and packed with awesome Happy Mutant goodness—from a man who helpfully offered the planetarium his own, home-brew rocket schematics; to a man with the nickname "Stardust" who told the planetarium they could cancel his reservation if he was able to hitch a ride on a flying saucer sooner; to Barbara, a 16-year-old who informed the Planetarium that she "won't be content" until she was on a rocket headed to far-off space. Beautiful!

Maggie Koerth-Baker is the science editor at BoingBoing.net. She writes a monthly column for The New York Times Magazine and is the author of Before the Lights Go Out, a book about electricity, infrastructure, and the future of energy. You can find Maggie on Twitter and Facebook.

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MORE: happy mutants • History • museums • Science • Space

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awjt

He’s not thinking big enough. He should be franchising the first hot stand on Mars. That way it’s scalable and he can actually make some money.
Zack Braunstein

Hah. The hot dog letter reminds me of a lovely Ray Bradbury story in The Martian Chronicles. Ahah- this one:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Martian_Chronicles#The_Off_Season_.28November_2005.2F2036.29
- http://noctilucent-studios.blogspot.com/ Noctilucent Studios
  
  I was thinking the exact same thing! I always loved the one called “Night Meeting” where the Earthman and the Martian meet at night on a lonely road, both believing that the other is a phantom. Such a haunting story.
- dwasifar karalahishipoor
  
  I’ll go you one better. I just finished re-reading The Martian Chronicles, not 90 minutes before encountering this BoingBoing post, and the hot dog stand story was part of what i read this evening.
http://twitter.com/loopiloop alice

this guy definitely has to be C.M.O.T. Dibbler’s dopple
Brainspore

This reminds me of a great collection of “Letters to the Mt. Wilson Observatory” on display at the Museum of Jurassic Technology in Culver City, CA. Some of them make this gentleman’s hot dog stand idea sound like a well-thought-out business plan:

http://www.mjt.org/exhibits/letters/lambgif.html
show me

I don’t know if it’s related, but when I was in second grade around 1969-70 I found a book in my school’s library that said at the back they were offering trips to the Moon and Mars. I excitedly showed it to my teacher and she mimeographed (!) the order form and I filled it out and sent it in. I got a reply back saying that although they appreciated my interest, they didn’t yet have the ability to fulfill such a trip they appreciated my interest. If only I could find that reply letter! It’s probably still in my mom’s house. Ah, the memories.
Gilbert Wham

I am with Barbara; I still ain’t on that rocket, and I’m NOT content.
Rodney Hoffman

I still have my Pan Am First Moon Flights Club card. When I was a kid, I hoped to spend Dec. 31, 1999 on the moon.
- Antinous / Moderator
  
  I had one, too. Long lost.
David Carroll

So not Hayden Panettiere after all.