This dissertation explores the way in which scientifically accurate representations of outer space--presented in popular American magazines such as Life and Collier's---in the decade after World War II advanced public support of space research. In particular, it examines the influence of the space paintings of Chesley Bonestell, an architect-turned-special effects artist, whose paintings of Saturn premiered in the May 29, 1944, issue of Life. Bonestell's paintings provide an entree into the larger question of how science can be affected by the religious proclivities of the culture from which that science comes. For the purpose of this dissertation, the answer to that question lies in the myth of the American frontier, and the way in which religio-cultural values developed to support nineteenth century American expansion---which also contributed to the cultural myth that arose around that expansion---were re-appropriated by Americans during the Cold War.

The central chapters of the dissertation trace the history of the space movement between 1946 and 1958, and follow the career of Chesley Bonestell, a man with a gift for being in the right place at the right time. This history begins with his collaborative partnership with rocket expert Willy Ley on several articles and eventually a book, The Conquest of Space (1949). It then moves to Bonestell's work on the 1950 science fiction film classic Destination Moon. The final two chapters explore Bonestell's collaboration with Wernher von Braun and other scientists, artists, and engineers, who together created plans for American space exploration in 1951. Their plans were published in Collier's and later released as a series of books. These plans included schematics for a space station in 1951, a "moon shot" in 1953, and a trip to Mars in 1956. In this dissertation, all of these events are read in light of the myth of the American frontier on Cold War religion and culture, and the way in which what mid-century sociologist Will Herberg called "the American Way of Life" influenced the both the science and the spirit of space boosterism throughout the 1950s.