Mars greenhouse by Chris Law

Picture of the Day 29/4/14 - Mars greenhouse by fantasy artist Chris Law from United Kingdom.

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Marker sketches of Mars by Phil Smith

Mars related marker sketches (2005-2006) by American artist Phil Smith. More of his art here.

Most of these sketches was made for Mars Foundation - an organisation whose mission is to inspire the next generation of Mars explorers. They run several research projects (as 3D printing on Mars) to design, fund, build and operate the first permanent settlement on Mars (Mars Homestead Project). Click to view in full resolution:

Astronauts exploring Mars by Sean Brady

Picture of the Day 27/4/14 - "Olympos station" (2007) by Sean Brady from United Kingdom.
Author's description of the scene: Setting up an automated weather station on the lower slopes of Olympus Mons.

My LEGO Mars base

Inspired from GRusso's idea for a LEGO Mars base, I built one by myself from my old LEGO bricks.

Note that I don't have any pack of space themed LEGO's so I had to improvise a lot. Most pressing was the absence of big windows for the greenhouse and appropriate hermetic-looking doors. Click to view in full resolution:

Mars base by Manchu

Picture of the Day 24/4/14 - A Mars base in Tartarus Colles by French sci-fi artist Manchu (Philippe Bouchet).

Spaceship in Mars orbit by deckard01

Picture of the Day 23/4/14 - Spaceship in Mars orbit (2013) by computer graphics artist deckard01.

Mars greenhouse by Les Bossinas

Picture of the Day 22/4/14 - Mars greenhouse (1991) by NASA's concept artist Les Bossinas.

Support for an idea of a LEGO Mars base

Please press here SUPPORT if you want LEGO to make a Mars base to inspire our children about Mars exploration.
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More pictures of the concept here. Click to view in full resolution:

Mars game review - Chaser

Welcome to Mars...

As there are quite a lot Chaser game reviews (of which the review by GameSpot seems to be the most comprehensive), in this review I will give a much closer focus on my general interest in this game - Mars and the story of the game. Unfortunately there are not so many video games set on Mars, so despite quite a few minuses Chaser is still one of the best. Even considering that only less than a half of the game actually takes place on Mars (the first part of the game is about getting to it).

In general Chaser is a classic first-person shooter (FPS) game where the player will be shooting various enemies a lot and the story is mostly told by cutscenes in between. Game is quite long and difficult (mitigated by easy quick-save-load system) not to run through too fast.

Story

The game takes place in late 21st century where there seems to be failed states and various criminal organizations on Earth (at least in those locations in US and Siberia where the main character wanders around) and on Mars there is a well developed colony controlled by authoritarian corporation called Mars Corp (equipped with the latest military technologies).

The protagonist (main character of the game) is John Chaser who awakens on board the space station H.M.S. Majestic in Earths orbit. He doesn't remember anything about himself. In meantime the space station is being attacked by unknown troops and the main target seems to be Chaser who fights his way through the crumbling station. He gets to escape pod and crushes into some criminal ghetto in Montak City (US). The player's goal is to find out who Chaser really is and why he is being hunted.

In his adventure Chaser works for mafia in a gang-war thorn Montak City where there happens to be people willing to help him (authorities treat him as dangerous terrorist who has blown up the H.M.S. Majestic), then helps some Caucasian criminals in US and Siberia, fighting his way through both American and Russian military bases. Eventually the Caucasians turn against him and Chaser has to help some Russian guy to escape from Gulag prison to get into partly abandoned spaceport in Siberia. Not without difficulties :) he gets into a ship to Mars where his real troubles only start. After failed attempt to flee from Mars spaceport Chaser is imprisoned, but a cell mate, who happens to know him, helps to escape. Then he does several hi-priority tasks for Mars Resistance, which fights against the oppressive regime of Mars Corp, in the end blowing up the director of the corporation - Samuel Longwood.

Victory seems to be in the grasp and they fly to the secret headquarters of the Resistance. Suddenly there are lots of Mars Corp soldiers killing Chasers comrades. He fights his way through endless levels of the now occupied Resistance underground base only to fall into the hands of never killed Longwood and his army, who has used Chaser as a bait to get to the leader of the Resistance. Turns out that Chaser in truth is a head of Longwood's security - Stone - who has planed all this operation with his master and erased his own memory to become Chaser and infiltrate the Resistance.

Never trust your memories.

Something sounds familiar?... Yes, because the main line of the Chaser's story is very similar to the Total Recall (1990) - a Hollywood movie with Arnold Schwarzenegger. The first part of the game on Earth is quite different from Total Recall's, also a lot of story details on Mars are modified and there are no Martian artifacts and mutated people in Chaser (aspects frankly I think were needless in Total Recall), but all in all Chaser is a video game totally inspired by the story of Total Recall. The ending is almost 1:1. And it's definitely a + for this game, because Total Recall is a great movie.

Astronauts exploring Mars by Ren Wicks

Picture of the Day 15/4/14 - A classic work "Mars mission" (1990) by American artist Ren Wicks. More of his Mars art here.

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Mars excavator by Kemp Remillard

Picture of the Day 14/4/14 - Mars excavator by concept artist Kemp Remillard. More of his art here.

Mars rover by Walter Myers

Picture of the Day 13/4/14 - Mars exploration rover by sci-fi artist Walter Myers. Watch more of his art here.

Race to Mars - TV movie about first human mission to Mars

Race to Mars is a two part TV movie about first human mission to Mars in 2030. The movie was made by Discovery Channel Canada in 2007. It is as scientific as it can be and covers almost all possible problems which can occur in such mission (even being too harsh if you ask my opinion). Although it is not officially stated - Race to Mars is heavily based (with modifications of course) on now canceled Constellation mission design of NASA.

Mars greenhouse by Bryan Versteeg

Picture of the Day 11/4/14 - Greenhouse in a Mars base by Bryan Versteeg. More of his concept art about agriculture on Mars here.

Astronaut working on Mars by unknown artist

Picture of the Day 10/4/14 - Can anyone point me out the author of this Mars artwork? Leave in comments...

Mars base by Georgi Petrov

Picture of the Day 8/4/14 - A Mars base by architect Georgi Petrov.

Astronauts exploring Valles Marineris by Sean Brady

Picture of the Day 7/4/14 - Exploration of Valles Marineris (2009) by Sean Brady from United Kingdom.

Mars colony by Pete Ashford

Picture of the Day 6/4/14 - A drawing "Welcome to Mars" (2010) by Pete Ashford from United Kingdom.

Terraforming Mars by Dane Spangler

Three phases for terraforming Mars by Dane Spangler's illustrations. Note the time needed (changing technologic level in illustrations) for complete terraformation of Mars. Click to view in full resolution:

Phase 1. - Red Mars:

Astronauts exploring Valles Marineris by Tiago da Silva

Picture of the Day 4/4/14 - "Valles Marineris" by Portuguese fantasy artist Tiago da Silva (Grafik). More of his work (no more Mars though) at grafik.deviantart.com

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Mars colony by Manchu

Picture of the Day 3/4/14 - A Mars colony by French sci-fi artist Manchu (Philippe Bouchet).

Astronauts exploring Noctis Labyrinthus by Pat Rawlings

Picture of the Day 2/4/14 - A classic work "in Noctis Labyrinthus" (1989) for NASA by Pat Rawlings.

Maybe it's You there climbing? ;)

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ISECG strategy for long-range human space exploration

The International Space Exploration Coordination Group (ISECG) is a forum of 14 most advanced government space agencies - ASI (Italy), CNES (France), CNSA (China), CSA (Canada), CSIRO (Australia), DLR (Germany), ESA (European Space Agency), ISRO (India), JAXA (Japan), KARI (Republic of Korea), NASA (United States of America), NSAU (Ukraine), Roscosmos (Russia), UKSA (United Kingdom). Its main goal is to advance a long-range human space exploration strategy.

On August, 2013 12 ISECG member agencies (including NASA) released the most recent update to the Global Exploration Roadmap. The summary can be seen in this infographic:

On April 10-11, 2014 NASA plans to host a workshop to discuss the updates to this roadmap.

Hope, the private pioneers like SpaceX, Mars One and others will speed up those plans a bit!

Mars base by Bryan Versteeg

Bryan Versteeg is one of the best conceptual design artists for space exploration nowadays. Today I have picked one of his concept art pictures for Mars habitat as my "Picture of the Day" for Mars colonization.