NASA Mars 2020 Perseverance rover launch

Today, July 30, at 7:50 AM (EDT) NASA will launch its next generation Mars 2020 Perseverance rover to Mars. The rover will land on Mars on February 18, 2021 in Jezero Crater (Western Isidis Planitia) to collect samples for later retrieval; the rover will be accompanied by a small reconnaissance drone-helicopter Ingenuity.

Here you can watch NASA's livestream of the launch:

The Perseverance is a twin rover of the Curiosity rover (working on Mars since 2012) with some upgrades:

Overview of the Perseverance scientific instruments:

Cutaway diagram of SpaceX Lunar Starship

Unofficial cutaway diagram of SpaceX's Lunar Starship interior by Rocket Posters. The Lunar Starship is lunar optimized version (for NASA's Artemis program) of the fully reusable super heavy-lift spacecraft - Starship - currently developed by leading NewSpace company SpaceX.

Every iteration of SpaceX Starship from 2016 to 2019

Finnish 3D artist Kimi Talvitie has created a side by side comparison of every iteration of SpaceX's Starship from its unveiling in September 2016 to the latest design presented on September 2019. More of Kimi's art here.

1. 12m diameter carbon fiber Interplanetary Transport System (September 2016)
2. 9m diameter carbon fiber Big Falcon Rocket (September 2017)
3. 9m diameter carbon fiber TinTin-style Big Falcon Rocket (September 2018)
4. 9m diameter stainless steel TinTin-style Starship (December 2018)
5. 9m diameter stainless steel Starship (September 2019)

SpaceX Starship interior concept for 100 passengers

NASASpaceFlight.com forum members Ace (Rick Kiessig from New Zealand) and lamontagne (Canadian design engineer Michel Lamontagne) have created a concept for the interior layout of SpaceX's 100-passenger Starship (the passenger capacity goal stated by Elon Musk). Therefore this concept isn't meant for the first crew Starships on Mars used as temporary habitats for the first few years. For those first Starships Michel Lamontagne has created a separate concept.

The design divides the living space into 7 decks, labeled A to G, from the bottom-up. There are two openings between decks, offset slightly from one deck to the next, to reduce the risk of accidents related to trying to "fly" through multiple decks while in zero-G. There are removable rails around the openings, to prevent accidental falls while on Earth or Mars. All decks have a 2.2m high living space, except Deck G, which is 2.16m high. The blue bars in some areas are examples of hand and foot holds, like they use on International Space Station (ISS).

The floors are shown with hexagonal tiles, to indicate a system that will allow wall partitions and other items to be attached or removed to meet the tastes and needs of passengers.

Deck A has the gym, an external airlock, some storage space, and a couple of toilets:

• ISS found a need for 2+ hours of exercise per day to avoid bone and muscle loss. Multiplied by 100 people, that requires 10 exercise machines. Note that several of them are mounted on the walls.
• Making full use of walls and ceilings for living space is a theme of this design, since there's no "down" in zero-G.
• The airlock allows access to the outside of the ship during flight, in case of a need to make inspections or minor repairs, and to support landing in places without pre-existing ground infrastructure.

SpaceX Starship interior concept by Jim Murphy

American aircraft interior designer Jim Murphy has made a concept for the interior of SpaceX's Starship with acceleration seats needed for takeoff and landing placed in individual cabins and acting as transformable beds. More of his designs here.

Starship's seats/cabins in launch, boarding & sleeping configuration:

Starship's seats/cabins in boarding configuration:

Starship's passenger seats/cabins:

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
• Speculative internal structure of Starship by William Falconer-Beach
• Speculative internal layout of Starship by Michel Lamontagne
• Cutaway diagram of Starship by Julian Schindler
• Cutaway diagram of Big Falcon Ship by Nick Oberg

Slides from SpaceX Starship 2019 update presentation by Elon Musk

Today SpaceX CEO and lead designer Elon Musk provided an update of SpaceX's Starship design. Here are slides and animations from his presentation (open link in new tab to view image in full resolution).

Basic info about the new Starship:

Layout of Starship Raptor engines:

Super Heavy booster layout:

Starship comparison with Starhopper and Millennium Falcon:

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: