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:

Speculative internal layout of SpaceX Starship by Michel Lamontagne

In the result of a discussion on NASASpaceFlight.com forum about possible internal layout of SpaceX's first crewed Starship bound for Mars Canadian design engineer Michel Lamontagne (on the forum known as lamontagne) has came up with graphics of his version for Starship's possible internal layout. More of his spaceship renderings here.

Observation / galley deck:

Cutaway diagram of SpaceX Starship

Unofficial cutaway diagram (in German, look for text translation in English here) of SpaceX's Starship by German illustrator Julian Schindler. More of his art here. Starship & Super Heavy is a fully reusable two-stage super heavy-lift launch vehicle and spacecraft currently developed by leading NewSpace company SpaceX. On August 24 mid-September SpaceX's CEO Elon Musk will make a presentation of the current status of Starship development.

Mars base concept by Wojtek Fikus for Marsception 2018 competition

Marsception 2018 was an architectural competition by Volume Zero "to envision a habitat for the first five colonists on the Red Planet where they would research on the viability of life for the future human generations". The 2nd place in the competition was won by the team of Polish architectural designer Wojtek Fikus (Wojciech Fikus) & Space is More. Their concept of the habitat was "modular structure made from triangular, inflatable wall cells connected together with internal life support system, based on microbiological water environment".

Top view of the base:

Infographic about the concept:

1 million human colony city on Mars by Max Rymsha

On 2017 HP announced the "Mars Home Planet" rendering challenge inviting participants "to imagine, create and virtually experience a sophisticated civilization on Mars. A new home for one million humans." Swedish architect and CG artist Max Rymsha was one of the winners of the challenge creating his concept "Between The Red Mountains" for a sustainable city on Mars for 1 million humans. His inspiring vision includes several large-scale biodomes, SpaceX's Starships (in their 2016 design) for Earth-Mars transportation, hyperloop lines for intercity transportation, electric rovers and quadcopters for local transportation, laboratories of NASA, etc.; most of the city (not shown in the illustration) is underground for better radiation and asteroid protection.

Infographic version with annotations:

Map of shallow subsurface water distribution on Mars

On March 10 ESA has revealed the first results from ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter orbiting Mars since October 2016. Among the data there is the best map of shallow subsurface water distribution on Mars ever created. The map is made by orbiter's neutron detector FREND mapping the distribution of hydrogen in the uppermost metre of the planet’s surface. Hydrogen indicates the presence of water, being one of the constituents of the water molecule; it can also indicate water absorbed into the surface, or minerals that were formed in the presence of water.

• Blue areas - more water
• Orange areas - less water

SpaceX Starship infographics by Kimi Talvitie

Finnish 3D artist Kimi Talvitie, who has made some of the best comparative renders of SpaceX's stainless steel Starship, today posted 2 infographics of the Starship:

SpaceX Starship + Super Heavy compared to Saturn V & Falcon 9 by Kimi Talvitie

Comparison of 1) the full stack Starship & Super Heavy, 2) the most powerful rocket ever built (till Starship & Super Heavy will be built) - Saturn V - and 3) today's workhorse of SpaceX - Falcon 9; made by Finnish 3D artist Kimi Talvitie. Comparison of Starhopper, Starship, Super Heavy, Falcon 9 and Starship + Super Heavy here.

SpaceX Starhopper, Starship, Super Heavy, Falcon 9 and BFR comparison by Kimi Talvitie

After making some of the best model renders of SpaceX's stainless steel Starship to date, Finnish 3D artist Kimi Talvitie has made another image, comparing the models of Starhopper (the shorter test vehicle of Starship), Starship, Super Heavy booster, Falcon 9 and full stack Starship + Super Heavy.

(Open link in new tab to view ⇩ in full resolution)

SpaceX Starhopper, Starship and Super Heavy model comparison by Kimi Talvitie

Finnish 3D artist Kimi Talvitie has made some impressive 3D models of SpaceX's stainless steel Starhopper (the shorter test vehicle of Starship), Starship and Super Heavy booster. Here are some comparative renders of them. Open link in new tab to view image in full resolution.

Mars base infographic by National Geographic

Mars base infographic by National Geographic accompanying the season 1 (2016) of its "MARS" TV series.

Season 2 of the TV series will be broadcasted worldwide starting on November 12th.
You can watch the full season 1 episodes of the TV series without geographic restrictions here.

Closeup of the underground section of the base:

Official schematics for Big Falcon Rocket v2018 by Elon Musk, SpaceX

Today SpaceX CEO and lead designer Elon Musk provided an update of SpaceX Big Falcon Rocket (BFR) design and announced the first BFR Lunar mission, orbiting the Moon in 2023.

Here are video, schematics and images from his presentation (open link in new tab to view image in full resolution). Animations of the Big Falcon Rocket from presentation HERE.

Big Falcon Rocket (BFR) and Big Falcon Ship/Spaceship (BFS) v2018 schematics:

Big Falcon Rocket launch:

Official: updated design of SpaceX's Big Falcon Ship and big announcement on September 17

SpaceX has posted image featuring an updated design of the 2nd stage of Big Falcon Rocket (BFR) - the Big Falcon Ship (BFS) - and informed that on Monday, September 17 at 18:00 PT there will be an announcement of the first Lunar BFR mission with a private passenger flying around the Moon. Full message from SpaceX here:

"SpaceX has signed the world’s first private passenger to fly around the Moon aboard our BFR launch vehicle - an important step toward enabling access for everyday people who dream of traveling to space. Only 24 humans have been to the Moon in history. No one has visited since the last Apollo mission in 1972. Find out who’s flying and why on Monday, September 17 at 6pm PT."

Evolution of the BFR design:

• Official schematics for larger ITS by Elon Musk at IAC 2016 (September 2016)
• Official schematics for BFR by Elon Musk at IAC 2017 (September 2017)
• Updated design for BFR by Gwynne Shotwell at TED 2018 (April 2018)

With every iteration the SpaceX "Mars rocket" looks more and more like your stereotypical rocket from the 1950s :)

Close-up of the Big Falcon Ship from the official image:

... and the full image with BFS orbiting the Moon (open link in new tab to view in full resolution):

Unofficial diagram for the updated design by Reddit user forteefly (open link in new tab to view in full resolution):

Terraforming Mars by Stefan Morrell, National Geographic

Gradual terraformation of Mars by concept artist Stefan Morrell from New Zealand. His picture was used to illustrate Robert Kunzig's article about terraforming Mars in National Geographic Magazine, February 2010 issue, and many more articles about colonization and terraformation of Mars since then.

Open image link in new tab to view images in full resolution

Close-up of the central section:

"Making Mars the new Earth" by Robert Kunzig, National Geographic Magazine, February 2010:

Cutaway diagram of SpaceX Big Falcon Ship

Unofficial cutaway diagram of the 2nd stage of SpaceX's Big Falcon Rocket (BFR) - Big Falcon Ship/Spaceship (BFS) - by Nick Oberg. Size comparison with Space Shuttle, Boeing 737, Apollo CSM/LM and Tesla Roadster in the lower left corner.

(Open link in new tab to view ⇩ in full resolution)

Original resolution (8.7MB) diagram here.

More speculative internal layouts of Starship by SpaceX fans:

• Starship interior concept for 20 to 40 passengers by Paul King + VR tour
• Starship interior concept for 100 passengers by Joseph Lantz
• Animation of Starship interior concept by DeepSpaceCourier
• Cutaway schematic of Starship interior by Tom Dixon & Austin Barnard [not speculative]
• Starship interior concept for 64 passengers by Erik Corshammar & smallstars
• Cutaway diagram of Lunar Starship by Rocket Posters
• Starship interior concept for 100 passengers by Rick Kiessig & Michel Lamontagne
• Starship interior concept by Jim Murphy
• Speculative internal structure of Starship by William Falconer-Beach
• Speculative internal layout of Starship by Michel Lamontagne
• Cutaway diagram of Starship by Julian Schindler

Mars base illustrations for National Geographic Kids Magazine

Mondolithic Studios has made some pretty impressive illustrations of a human Martian base for National Geographic Kids Magazine (November 2015). Click to view in full resolution:

(Open link in new tab to view ⇩ in full resolution)

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!

Infographics: Missions to Mars

Here are some of the best infographics I have found about past missions to Mars from 1960 to 2013, both failed and successful.