Nuclear spaceships slow down for Mars by Thomas Peters

Picture of the Day 19/04/2026 - Two spaceships powered by nuclear thermal rocket (NTR) engines slow down to enter medium Mars orbit near Phobos, the closest of the two natural Martian moons, by graphic designer and illustrator Thomas Peters (aka Drell-7).

The Alpha Quarry - Part 8 of Martian sketches by Andrey Maximov

Environment concept artist Andrey Maximov from Armenia has created an impressive set of artworks called Martian sketches depicting a "routine" journey to Mars in 2089. After 8-month break he has published another 5 pages of those sketches (currently 45 in total). As the artist describes them: "this series is kind of like the road sketches of a member of an expedition to Mars. It's a routine flight in the not-too-distant future. The planet is more or less inhabited. We have an orbital station around Mars. There are already several settlements on the surface, mining is going on."

• 1st part (10 sketches) of Andrey's Martian sketches depicted the expedition leaving Earth;
• 2nd part (5 sketches) depicted expedition's arrival to "International Mars Orbital Station";
• 3rd part (6 sketches) depicted spaceport "Anteros" on Mars.
• 4th part (4 sketches) depicted expedition's road to the "Harmonia City".
• 5th part (5 sketches) depicted the multi-leveled "Harmonia City" on Mars.
• 6th part (5 sketches) depicted southern (industrial) district of the "Harmonia City".
• 7th part (5 sketches) depicted expedition's road to the aluminum quarry.

Here is the 8th part (5 sketches) depicting the largest ore processing plant on Mars - "The Alpha Quarry":

“The largest ETS dump trucks were produced on Mars and could only work here and nowhere else due to the low gravity”:

Mars is ours! HD shots from "For All Mankind" season 5 trailer

In a teaser released in January Apple TV revealed that in season 5 of the alternate-history sci-fi TV series For All Mankind, the Happy Valley Base on Mars has grown into a thriving colony with thousands of residents. Two days ago the full trailer dropped, confirming that the friction between the Martian colonists and their former home, Earth, will be the central theme of season 5 - depicting the alternate year 2012.

For All Mankind is exploring the idea of never-ending space race if the Soviets had beaten the US in the race for the Moon, and the intention of the show is each season to jump about a decade further into the increasingly diverging reality of the show: in season 1, depicting alternate 1969 to 1974, both Soviets and US start building their separate bases near the lunar South pole; in season 2 (1983) both bases have been expanded and the superpowers compete for resources on the Lunar surface; in season 3 (1992 to 1995), Soviets and US are joined by a private company Helios and North Korea for a four-way race to be the first on Mars; in season 4 (2003) there is a sprawling international human base on Mars, but Martian rebels "steal" a large, lithium-rich asteroid, locking it in Martian orbit. Season 5 will start airing on March 27 on Apple TV.

Here you can watch the trailer and explore a set of high-resolution shots from it (downscaled from 4K UHD screens for better image quality):

In 9 years since the events in season 4 Happy Valley Base has grown into a real colony:

Dev Ayesa's Martian mansion:

SpaceX mass driver at Moonbase Alpha

A render of SpaceX mass driver at Moonbase Alpha to launch Moon-made AI satellites (data centers) into orbit. The render was included in Elon Musk's presentation yesterday at xAI All Hands meeting.

A lunar mass driver is a proposed electromagnetic launch system optimized for the Moon’s low gravity (1/6th Earth’s) and hard vacuum, consisting of a long, straight acceleration track (typically several to tens of kilometers) lined with sequentially fired superconducting coils or linear synchronous motors that propel a payload-carrying sled or bucket to lunar escape velocity (~2.38 km/s). The track is usually elevated on supports or aligned along a natural slope (e.g., crater rim) to achieve the desired trajectory. Payloads experience continuous acceleration (potentially 20-100 g for brief periods) without atmospheric drag or chemical propellant expenditure, enabling theoretically high throughput at far lower recurring cost than rockets. Practical challenges include the immense construction effort, precise alignment for orbital insertion, recoil management into the lunar surface, and the energy storage needed for rapid repetitive launches.

Artemis Base Camp by Pierre Carril, ESA

Concept renders for Artemis Base Camp by French scientific illustrator Pierre Carril, commissioned by the European Space Agency (ESA) in 2019. The concept depicts Artemis Base Camp having dome-shaped human habitats covered with a layer of lunar regolith for radiation and impact protection, interconnected transparent geodesic domes housing hydroponic gardens for food and oxygen generation, and vast deployable solar arrays capturing near-constant sunlight at the lunar south polar region to power the outpost. Astronauts in ESA-marked spacesuits oversee robotic construction rovers building the lunar base.

NASA's international Artemis Base Camp, with ESA as a major partner, is a planned long-term outpost on the lunar south pole, envisioned as the cornerstone of sustainable human exploration under the Artemis program, with establishment targeted for the 2030s. Situated near craters like Shackleton for access to water ice in permanently shadowed regions and areas of near-continuous sunlight for solar power, the initial base would include a fixed Foundation Surface Habitat to accommodate up to four astronauts for stays of one to two months, a pressurized rover for extended surface traverses, an unpressurized Lunar Terrain Vehicle for mobility, power systems (including potential nuclear options), in-situ resource utilization for producing essentials like oxygen and propellant from lunar regolith, and supporting infrastructure for scientific research and technology testing to pave the way for Mars missions. As of early 2026, with Artemis II crewed preparations advancing toward a March launch, the concept remains NASA's blueprint for transitioning from short landings to permanent lunar presence.

A competing project – International Lunar Research Station (ILRS) – is being developed under Chinese leadership and targets the lunar south pole region in the 2030s, starting robotic before permanent habitability post-2035 and full expansion by ~2050.

Thousands are living on Mars in "For All Mankind" season 5

Today Apple TV released the first teaser for the long-awaited season 5 of For All Mankind alternate history sci-fi TV series. It was accompanied by several promotional photos from the season and a synopsis: "Season five of “For All Mankind” picks up in the years since the Goldilocks asteroid heist. Happy Valley has grown into a thriving colony with thousands of residents and a base for new missions that will take us even further into the solar system. But with the nations of Earth now demanding law and order on the Red Planet, friction continues to build between the people who live on Mars and their former home."

From the teaser it seems one of the underlying themes in season 5 will be Freedom.. Freedom on Mars.

For All Mankind is exploring the idea of never ending space race if Soviets would have beaten US in the race for the Moon and the intention of the show is each season to jump about a decade further into the increasingly diverging reality of the show: in season 1, depicting alternate 1969 to 1974, both Soviets and US start building their separate bases near the lunar South pole; in season 2 (1983) both bases have been expanded and the superpowers compete for resources on the Lunar surface; in season 3 (1992 to 1995), Soviets and US are joined by a private company Helios and North Korea for a four way race to be first on Mars; in season 4 (2003) there is a sprawling international human base on Mars and an unexpected side enters the race to get hold on a large, lithium-rich asteroid for mining. Season 5 will start airing on March 27 on Apple TV

Here you can watch the teaser and see the accompanying photos:

Happy Valley Base has been expanded a lot since season 4:

Alex Poletov (Ed's grandson) rides a motorcycle near the Happy Valley Base:

Free Mars graffiti are all over the Happy Valley Base:

Lunar base in 'The Wandering Earth II' (2023) movie

The Wandering Earth II is a 2023 Chinese movie set in the mid-21st century as humanity races to save Earth from the Sun’s impending expansion into a red giant. The film chronicles the global effort to build thousands of massive planetary engines (and three more on the Moon) to propel the entire planet out of the Solar System - an audacious plan known as the Moving Mountain Project - while contending with the rival Digital Life Project that seeks to upload human consciousness into computers instead.

In the film, the Lunar bases for the three giant planetary engines built into Lunar crater rims are portrayed as sprawling, industrial megacomplexes carved into the Moon’s harsh terrain - towering gantries, clusters of spaceships on multiple launch pads, heavy lunar rovers kicking up plumes of regolith, and extensive networks of modular habitats, storage tanks, and processing plants illuminated by harsh artificial lights.

Here is a collection of Lunar scenery from the movie:

Merry Christmas to all Martians!

Created using Grok Imagine by xAI

P.S. It's incredible how fast the AI text-to-image generation has evolved recently. Only a few years ago you couldn't generate such image without deep knowledge of the right tools, now it's accessible to anyone.

SpaceX spaceship orbiting Mars by Encho Enchev

Concept art for a SpaceX nuclear-powered spaceship departing Mars' orbit by Ubisoft' 3D environment artist Encho Enchev from Bulgaria.

Another render of the same spaceship, but with a partially terraformed Mars bellow:

Martian colony by Goodname Studio

Picture of the Day 07/12/2025 - several spacecraft approaching a Martian colony rising from a sea of sand dunes by Goodname digital art studio based in Lithuania. The colony consists of a colossal, domed megastructure and smaller auxiliary domes flanking the central edifice; the colony is half-buried in an endless sea of golden desert dunes and its weathered surface is etched with intricate geometric patterns. The scene radiates a blend of ancient grandeur and futuristic desolation, evoking the atmosphere of a long-lost interstellar civilization swallowed by time and sand.

Set of paintings with scenes from "For All Mankind" TV series

French urban artist Colin Doublier has created a set of paintings with scenes from For All Mankind alternate history sci-fi TV series. For All Mankind is exploring the idea of never ending space race if Soviets would have beaten US in the race for the Moon and the intention of the show is each season to jump about a decade further into the increasingly diverging reality of the show: in season 1, depicting alternate 1969 to 1974, both Soviets and US start building their separate bases near the lunar South pole; in season 2 (1983) both bases have been expanded and the superpowers compete for resources on the Lunar surface; in season 3 (1992 to 1995), Soviets and US are joined by a private company Helios and North Korea for a four way race to be first on Mars; in season 4 (2003) there is a sprawling international human base on Mars and an unexpected side enters the race to get hold on a large, lithium-rich asteroid for mining. You can watch the show on Apple TV+. Season 5 should air soon.

Kuznetsov Station on Goldilocks in orbit around Mars in season 5:

Happy Valley Base on Mars in season 4:

Mars orbital station Phoenix in season 4:

Lunar Starship (HLS) interiors by SpaceX

On October 30, 2025, SpaceX provided a major update to its Lunar Starship (Human Landing System) program – a Lunar optimized Starship version which NASA has selected for the Artemis III and Artemis IV missions returning Americans to the surface of the Moon.

As it was written by SpaceX in the update: "Humanity is at an inflection point. For the first time in our existence, we possess the means, technology, and, for the moment, the will to establish a permanent human presence beyond Earth. Starship is designed to make this future a reality and is singularly capable of carrying unparalleled numbers of explorers and the building blocks they’ll need to establish the first outposts on lunar and other planetary surfaces. For these reasons and more, it was chosen to fulfill the key role of landing the first astronauts on the Moon in more than 50 years. It will be a central enabler that will fulfill the vision of NASA’s Artemis program, which seeks to establish a lasting presence on the lunar surface, not just flags and footprints, and ultimately forge the path to land the first humans on Mars. Starship provides unmatched capability to explore the Moon, thanks to its large size and ability to refill propellant in space. One single Starship has a pressurized habitable volume of more than 600 cubic meters, which is roughly two-thirds the pressurized volume of the entire International Space Station, and is complete with a cabin that can be scaled for large numbers of explorers and dual airlocks for surface exploration."

The update was accompanied with several new official renders of SpaceX's Lunar Starship, including its interior views.

Airlock:

Cockpit:

Infographic: Artemis landers (Starship HLS & Blue Moon MK2) vs Apollo Lunar Module

Recently NASA published an update on Human Landing System (HLS) program for Artemis missions. The presentation included, among other things, infographics about the SpaceX Lunar Starship (Human Landing System) for Artemis III and Artemis IV missions, the Blue Origin Blue Moon MK2 lander for the Artemis V mission, a comparison of both Lunar landers with the Apollo Lunar Module, as well as a Map of Artemis III candidate Landing sites.

SpaceX Lunar Starship (Human Landing System):

Blue Origin Blue Moon MK2 lander:

Map of Artemis III candidate Landing sites:

Eros, the site of the protomolecule experiment, in "The Expanse" TV series

Eros is the second-largest near-Earth asteroid located in the inner Asteroid Belt with dimensions of about 34 km × 11 km × 11 km, giving it an irregular, potato-like shape. It's notable as the first asteroid discovered to cross Mars' orbit, and it has been visited by NASA's NEAR Shoemaker probe in 2000, which orbited and landed on it, providing detailed images and data about its surface composition, primarily silicates and metals.

In the universe of The Expanse TV series – a gripping political hard sci-fi drama set in the mid-24th century, where humanity has colonized the entire Solar System – Eros hosts Eros Station, one of the earliest and most bustling outposts in the Belt. It's a major hub for shipbuilding, repairs, and entertainment, with a population of around 100'000 people. The station is spun up to create artificial gravity through centrifugal force, with levels built so that "down" is toward the outer hull, providing about 0.3g – enough for comfortable walking but still a challenge for Inners unused to it.

Unlike the more industrial Ceres, Eros is known for its lower docking fees and vibrant underbelly, featuring casinos, brothels, and shooting galleries that attract crews looking to blow off steam after long hauls. It's described as the "birthplace of the Belt," where early colonists turned raw ore into the skeletons of the first spaceships, though over time, much of the heavy shipping shifted elsewhere. The docks are clustered in five main areas, with old shipyards jutting out like massive spiderwebs of steel and carbon lace, dotted with warning lights and sensors.

Eros plays a central and tragic role in the early story of The Expanse, particularly as the site of the infamous Eros Incident. Security on the station was initially handled by Protogen, but they pulled out and installed a puppet firm to oversee operations. This was all a setup for a massive experiment with the alien protomolecule, which was unleashed on the population as a weapon test, leading to horrifying mutations and the station's eventual takeover by the entity.

Here are some shots of Eros and Eros Station exteriors from the show:

Eros Station docks:

Mars colony with a large central dome by Erik Wernquist

A human colony on Mars with a large central dome by Swedish digital artist Erik Wernquist, the author of the stunning visionary shortfilms "Wanderers" (2014, depicting humanity's expansion into the Solar System) and "Go Incredibly Fast" (2022, identifying propulsion methods to send humans to outer Solar System and stars). This render was used as a background scenery for one of the scenes in "Go Incredibly Fast".

The Martian LEGO set has reached 10'000 supporters

The Martian LEGO set product idea, created by Steve Iuliano aka Mr Sci-Fi, has reached 10'000 supporter threshold on LEGO Ideas. Now it will go through a review by LEGO and, if approved, the final design will be created and made purchasable as a real LEGO Ideas set. The set includes Mark Watney's Habitat (HAB), Mars Ascent Vehicle (MAV), Rover and the NASA's Pathfinder probe and Sojourner rover found by Mark Watney during his voyage in the famous 2015 sci-fi movie The Martian.

Exterior and interior view of the Habitat (HAB):

Mars Ascent Vehicle (MAV) with separable Command Module:

Mars Exploration Rover:

Road to the Quarry - Part 7 of Martian sketches by Andrey Maximov

Environment concept artist Andrey Maximov from Armenia has created an impressive set of artworks called Martian sketches depicting a "routine" journey to Mars in 2089. He has just published another 5 pages of those sketches (currently 40 in total). As the artist describes them: "this series is kind of like the road sketches of a member of an expedition to Mars. It's a routine flight in the not-too-distant future. The planet is more or less inhabited. We have an orbital station around Mars. There are already several settlements on the surface, mining is going on."

• 1st part (10 sketches) of Andrey's Martian sketches depicted the expedition leaving Earth;
• 2nd part (5 sketches) depicted expedition's arrival to "International Mars Orbital Station";
• 3rd part (6 sketches) depicted spaceport "Anteros" on Mars.
• 4th part (4 sketches) depicted expedition's road to the "Harmonia City".
• 5th part (5 sketches) depicted the multi-leveled "Harmonia City" on Mars.
• 6th part (5 sketches) depicted southern (industrial) district of the "Harmonia City".

Here is 7th part (5 sketches) depicting expedition's road to the aluminum quarry:

Wilhelm Beer Valley:

Southern District - Part 6 of Martian sketches by Andrey Maximov

Environment concept artist Andrey Maximov from Armenia has created an impressive set of artworks called Martian sketches depicting a "routine" journey to Mars in 2089. After a year's break he has published another 5 pages of those sketches (currently 35 in total). As the artist describes them: "this series is kind of like the road sketches of a member of an expedition to Mars. It's a routine flight in the not-too-distant future. The planet is more or less inhabited. We have an orbital station around Mars. There are already several settlements on the surface, mining is going on."

• 1st part (10 sketches) of Andrey's Martian sketches depicted the expedition leaving Earth;
• 2nd part (5 sketches) depicted expedition's arrival to "International Mars Orbital Station";
• 3rd part (6 sketches) depicted spaceport "Anteros" on Mars.
• 4th part (4 sketches) depicted expedition's road to the "Harmonia City".
• 5th part (5 sketches) depicted the multi-leveled "Harmonia City" on Mars.

Here is 6th part (5 sketches) depicting southern (industrial) district of the "Harmonia City":

Mars terraforming outpost

Picture of the Day 14/07/2025 - visualization of a terraforming outpost on Mars by Sebastian Esposito. The outpost unfolds across the rust-red plains of Mars, its gleaming geodesic domes and translucent greenhouses springing to life amid an otherwise barren landscape. Billowing plumes of vapor rise from atmospheric processing units - an effort to thicken the thin, carbon-dioxide-rich air, while clusters of solar arrays and modular habitats stretch toward the hazy horizon. Nearby, rockets stand ready to ferry supplies and settlers between the outpost and orbiting stations, underscoring humanity’s bold commitment to transform the Red Planet from a cold desert into a living world.