Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield is heading back to space, and this time he wants a little help from local artists.
Hadfield says he wants Canadians to help design a poster to commemorate his upcoming mission to the International Space Station.
Hadfield has taken social networking sites to get ideas on how to promote Expedition 35, a mission that will see the 51-year-old commander become the first Canadian to take charge of the space station.
The six-month mission begins late next year.
Hadfield says whatever the poster turns out to be, it will not be the traditional picture of astronauts standing in space suits and holding their helmets.
"We used to just do a very traditional-looking crew photograph, but somebody said: 'Why not make it more interesting?"' Hadfield told The Canadian Press.
NASA has issued unique posters in the past. One poster for Expedition 21 shows the crew wearing Star Trek uniforms. A recent one made for the crew currently on board the space station was a re-creation of the Beatles' famous "Abbey Road" album cover.
Some ideas suggested to Hadfield was a re-creation of album covers by Canadian artists Rush and Bachman-Turner Overdrive. One idea he liked was a picture of a group of astronauts wearing Canadian and Russian hockey uniforms.
"Someone suggested the 1972 hockey series between Canada and Russia, so I started looking at the hockey series posters where they show a lot of well-known faces," he said.
"That would be fun to do, (but) I don't know if I could talk the rest of the crew into that."
The final design choice will be made by NASA and the Canadian Space Agency, Hadfield said.
With files from The Canadian Press
