NASA's base on Mars by Pat Rawlings

Picture of the Day 15/6/2020 - NASA's research base on Mars (1985) by classical space illustrator Pat Rawlings. More of his art here.

Elon Musk with his youngest son X Æ A-12 at Mars Base Alpha

“Dad, what was it like to be confined indoors?”
“It doesn't matter son, now we have the whole universe to ourselves”

SpaceX CEO Elon Musk with his youngest son X Æ A-12 at Mars Base Alpha by Indian space artist Eashan Misra in collaboration with Eli Burton, known as Real Life Starman. Note the Tesla Supercharger station on the left side.

Two Starmen and a Stardog exploring Mars

Picture of the Day 5/5/2020 - two Starmen and a Stardog exploring Mars by Costa Rican artist Gabriel from Guardianes de Perros.

Starman brings life to Mars

Starman brings life to Mars - inspiring cosplay photo of SpaceX's Starman holding a seedling in pressurized glass cloche at a location similar to Martian terrain by Eli Burton, known as Real Life Starman.

Family on Mars by Patrick Leger

Picture of the Day 14/4/2020 - retro style illustration with family exploring surroundings of a Mars colony by American illustrator Patrick Leger. Note the boy pointing at blue Earth in the Martian sky :) More of Leger's art here.

NASA astronaut on Mars by James Vaughan

Two variants of a scene with NASA's astronaut on Mars by photographer and concept artist James Vaughan - one with a small human base in the background and the second in front of an exploration rover. More of Vaughan's aerospace and defense concept art here.

Animation envisioning first human mission to Mars

Images and video animation envisioning first human mission to Mars created by Taylor James design studio for a health care campaign "Destination Survival" by Sudler & Hennessey London.

Astronaut looking at Martian colony by Dotted Yeti

Picture of the Day 24/1/2020 - Astronaut looking at a radial Martian colony by Dotted Yeti.

Painting of Elon Musk on Mars by Conor Walton

Oil painting with Elon Musk, the CEO & lead designer of SpaceX, on Mars by Irish painter Conor Walton. More of his art here.

Astronauts returning to Mars colony by Ferdinand Ladera

Picture of the Day 13/12/2019 - exploration team returning to human colony on Mars by Filipino fantasy artist Ferdinand Ladera; illustration for The Expanse role-playing board game.

Mars in Ad Astra (2019) movie

Ad Astra is a recent (September 2019) science fiction thriller set in mid-21st century when humanity has started to settle the inner Solar System. A son (Brad Pitt) is sent on a mission to uncover the truth about his father's (Tommy Lee Jones) long lost mission near Neptune which now threatens the survival of Earth. In his lonesome and dangerous mission he visits several places including a dynamic but wild human colony on the Moon and a desolate relay station on Mars. Here are some HD images from the Martian scenes in the movie.

Starman resting at his Tesla Cybertruck on Mars by Eashan Misra

SpaceX's Starman resting at his Tesla Cybertruck on Mars by Indian space artist Eashan Misra. More of his art here. According to Elon Musk, the CEO of both Tesla and SpaceX, the pressurized edition of Cybertruck will be capable to drive on Mars.

Walking around China's C-Space Mars simulation base in Gobi desert

Walking around China's C-Space Mars simulation base in Gobi desert - photos and a video by Slovenian photographer Matjaž Tančič. A private company C-Space opened this base on April, 2019 in the Gobi Desert 40km from Jinchang, northwest Gansu Province. Its aim is to educate and provide an environment for youths and tourists to experience life on Mars.

New cinematic trailer for Occupy Mars simulation game released

The Martian frontier is yours in Occupy Mars - the upcoming (as of today: Coming soon) highly technical open world simulation game about Mars colonization from Polish indie game developer Pyramid Games. In the game you will be able to "build and upgrade your base, discover new amazing regions, conduct mining operations, retrieve water and generate oxygen, grow crops, fix broken parts, learn how to survive on Mars!"

Here is the newest cinematic trailer of the game and beautiful HD images from it. Note the SpaceX's Starman style spacesuit and ITS v2016 Starship.

SpaceX ITS v2016 Starship landing at Mars base:

Assembling Mars base module by module:

Astronaut planting a tree in Mars biodome:

Mars base layout:

Three phases of terraforming Mars by Björn Selin

Annotated images with three phases of exploring and terraforming Mars by Swedish game artist Björn Selin. The images were made with the guidance of planetary scientist Chris McKay from NASA's Ames Research Center.

Phase 1 - exploration - humans can explore the barren Red planet only within protective pressure suits / rovers / habitats:

Phase 2 - planetary ecosynthesis - the air pressure and temperature has risen to the level where only warm clothing and oxygen mask is needed; simple organisms as lichens can be introduced:

Phase 3 - spreading life - humidity and temperature has risen to the level where only oxygen mask is needed; more complex organisms can be introduced:

Early human base on Mars by Ronan Le Fur (Dofresh)

Picture of the Day 10/8/2019 - Astronaut observing early human base on Mars by French concept artist and illustrator Ronan Le Fur (known as Dofresh). More of his art here.

SpaceX. Raising the bar!

"Do it", as Elon Musk bluntly replied to the bragging of Boeing's CEO about "beating Elon Musk to Mars" 😁

These days SpaceX is the leading NewSpace company developing innovative and cost-effective rocket/space technologies and beating all the "space dinosaurs" in the field. Its ultimate goal is to colonize Mars. In the spirit of this reality Instagram user starjet_pilot has made this retro style poster (recalling the iconic photography of US soldiers raising the flag on Iwo Jima by Joe Rosenthal) of starmen raising the flag of SpaceX on Mars with the Starship in the background.

Mars colony by Alexey Shugurov

Picture of the Day 4/4/2019 - Astronaut trying to charge his ATV near a futuristic human colony on Mars by Ukrainian fantasy and space artist Alexey Shugurov. More of his art here.

Poster of SpaceX Starman "Mars. Mission Dragon"

Poster of SpaceX's Starman "Mars. Mission Dragon" by Instagram user starjet_pilot.

D-Mars mission habitat in southern Israel

Astronauts returning to D-Mars mission habitat in southern Israel; photo by Niamh Shaw. D-Mars (Desert Mars Analog Ramon Station) is Israel's 1st Mars analog research station similar to Mars Society's Mars Desert Research Station (MDRS) in Utah, US where astronauts, scientists and space enthusiasts can train for future human missions to Mars.

The station is located in a desolate area in Israel’s Negev Desert near the 200 million-year-old, 25-mile-wide Ramon Crater. Although not an impact crater, but a rare form of erosion structures, it has a resemblance to a variety of terrain types relevant to Mars exploration. The surrounding area hosts many similarities to the Martian environment in its geology, aridity and isolation.