Mars colony for 5000 people in "For All Mankind" season 5

In season 5 of the alternate-history sci-fi series For All Mankind, set in an alternate 2012 where tensions between Martian colonists and their former home, Earth, reach boiling point, the international Happy Valley colony on Mars has grown into a settlement of more than five thousand residents. Happy Valley Base, located in Melas Chasma within the Valles Marineris system, was founded by NASA in 1995 during season 3. By season 4 (alternate 2003), it housed around 200 people.

In the nine years since, Happy Valley, governed by the Mars-6 Alliance (US, USSR, ESA, India, Japan, and the Coalition of Communist Countries for Spaceflight), has expanded far beyond simple growth. The colony now supports a genuine multi-generational population and features a far larger and more interconnected complex: expanded power, communications, fuel, and regolith processing facilities, multiple large agrodomes (several already operational with more under construction), a developed spaceport, and the distinctive radiation shield tower system. The central hub includes arrival halls with rover airlocks, control and laboratory modules, warehouses, and living quarters. A noticeable addition is the emergence of civilian commercial and social spaces alongside the industrial backbone. Helios and its Soviet competitor Kuragin both maintain offices on Mars; Kuragin is actively building a space elevator.

For All Mankind runs on the premise of a never-ending space race in a timeline where the Soviets reached the Moon first. Each season leaps roughly a decade into an increasingly divergent reality: season 1 (1969–1974) sees rival US and Soviet lunar South Pole bases; season 2 (1983) escalates resource competition on the Moon; season 3 (1992–1995) brings private company Helios and North Korea into a four-way race to Mars; season 4 (2003) features Happy Valley workers redirecting the lithium-rich asteroid Goldilocks into Mars orbit after "stealing" it from the M-7 Alliance.

Here we have collected high-resolution screenshots from season 5 (sourced from 4K UHD and optimized for web). They show the colony's exteriors and interiors without major plot reveals. There are separate galleries for Happy Valley agrodomes, spaceport and the Helios' office.

Helios' office at the Mars colony in "For All Mankind" season 5

In season 5 of the alternate-history sci-fi series For All Mankind, set in an alternate 2012, Happy Valley on Mars has grown into a settlement of more than five thousand residents. Helios Aerospace is a multi-national aerospace company and space manufacturer founded by Dev Ayesa, whom we have known since season 3. Helios acts as a private primary operator and transport provider for the Happy Valley colony. Although by Season 5, it is already facing fierce competition for Happy Valley development contracts from its Soviet competitor Kuragin, which has also opened its own separate office at Happy Valley and currently is building a space elevator for the colony.

Here we have collected high-resolution screenshots depicting Helios' office at the Happy Valley colony on Mars:

Helios' office is located into a hill near the Happy Valley colony:

Agrodomes of the Mars colony in "For All Mankind" season 5

In season 5 of the alternate-history sci-fi series For All Mankind, set in an alternate 2012, Happy Valley on Mars has grown into a settlement of more than five thousand residents. Among other facilities the colony features multiple large agrodomes (greenhouses) from which eight are already operational and several more in construction.

Here we have collected high-resolution screenshots depicting the work and recreation of the residents of Happy Valley in these agrodomes:

You woke alone in a Martian base.. only to discover you are not quite alone..

Moons of Madness is a first-person cosmic horror adventure game released in 2019. Set in a near-futuristic Martian research outpost, the game blends hard science fiction with Lovecraftian horror, drawing inspiration from works like The Martian and H.P. Lovecraft’s mythos. The narrative follows Shane Newehart, an engineer tasked with maintaining the outpost until a relief team arrives on the transport ship Cyrano. The game’s depiction of the Martian outpost and its pervasive atmosphere of loneliness and abandonment are central to its immersive, unsettling experience.

The Martian outpost, Trailblazer Alpha, is a meticulously designed, state-of-the-art research facility built by the Orochi corporation to investigate a mysterious signal of intelligent origin detected from Mars. The outpost is a believable blend of scientific realism and eerie desolation, featuring functional areas like a greenhouse, infirmary, research labs, and solar panel arrays, all inspired by real-world Mars mission planning. The environment is detailed with personal touches – photo frames, workstations, coffee machines, and sticky notes – that evoke a sense of lived-in habitation, contrasting sharply with the growing sense of decay and neglect. As Shane navigates the base, he encounters malfunctioning systems, such as a flooded greenhouse filled with strange mist, Martian dust leaking into the infirmary, and alien-like, tentacle-covered vines sprawling across corridors, hinting at an otherworldly presence. The stark, rust-colored Martian landscape outside, with its dust clouds and desolate vistas, amplifies the outpost’s isolation, while the interior’s claustrophobic corridors and flickering lights enhance the feeling of being trapped in a failing, abandoned structure.

Shane, with limited security clearance, is unaware of the outpost’s true purpose and isolated from the broader mission, fostering a sense of disconnection from his colleagues and the world. His team’s absence – unexplained as they fail to return from an EVA mission – deepens this solitude, leaving him to face the outpost’s breakdowns alone. The narrative introduces psychological horror through Shane’s hallucinations and visions, possibly tied to his mother’s mysterious disappearance and his own fragile mental state, blurring the line between reality and madness. Cryptic messages, such as “They Never Turn Away!” scrawled on bulletin boards, and encounters with eerie entities like the “Thing in the Mist” intensify the feeling of being watched yet utterly alone. The outpost’s gradual transformation, with alien growths overtaking its once-functional spaces, mirrors Shane’s descent into isolation, as the environment itself seems to reject human presence.

The game’s pacing reinforces these themes, starting with routine tasks like aligning solar panels or repairing rovers, which ground players in Shane’s solitary duties, before escalating into survival against supernatural threats. The lack of combat mechanics heightens vulnerability, forcing players to confront the outpost’s dangers with only their wits, further emphasizing helplessness. While the story’s later plot twists – such as the revelation of Martian technology stabilizing the moons Phobos and Deimos as dormant elder gods – can feel disjointed, the atmosphere of loneliness and abandonment remains consistent, making Trailblazer Alpha a haunting stage for Shane’s unraveling psyche.

Here is a collection of images from the game, focusing on depiction of the Martian base:

Mars base model by Zuzanna Skąpska

A set of renders for a Mars base model created by Polish 3D artist Zuzanna Skąpska for Mission to Mars AR app, an interactive augmented reality experience allowing users to drive a rover, launch a rocket, and explore the Red Planet. The app was created by Immersion Labs for Smithsonian Institution and with collaboration with NASA.

The Mars base model presents a modular and expandable habitat system intended for human settlement on Mars. It comprises multiple interconnected cylindrical modules, each serving distinct functions such as living quarters, research labs, or storage. The central module, marked with "MARS 2020" and an American flag, serves as the primary living area, equipped with communication equipment and access points for surface operations. Adjacent to this is a domed greenhouse structure, crucial for growing food and supporting human life in the base. The design incorporates protective features against Mars' harsh conditions, including radiation shielding, and allows for future expansion as the base grows.

Garden inside a dome on Mars by Bryan Versteeg

Canadian concept artist Bryan Versteeg has created a concept of a human base on Mars featuring a recreational garden inside a small crater covered with a transparent dome.

A long night on Mars in "Fort Solis" thriller game

Fort Solis (2023) is a cinematic narrative-driven science fiction thriller game set in 2080 on Mars. During a night engulfed in a severe sandstorm two mining engineers, Jack and Jessica, respond to an unusual emergency alert from a mining and research station "Fort Solis". The station is on lockdown and seems to be abandoned. The pair separately starts to investigate, what has happened in the base, searching for clues throughout the claustrophobic buildings. Piece by piece they unlock both the various parts of the base and the truth behind recent events there. The game starts as a detective and ends as a thriller.

Fort Solis runs on Unreal Engine 5.2 so visually it is really good, especially the character models and animations. The game is not long, you can finish it in 5 to 8 hours even when reading, watching and listening to all of the clues throughout the base. The story will unfold linearly piece by piece, but there are two separate endings possible in the final act of the game.

Visual recap of Fort Solis' STORY

Jack and Jessica are working at a mining rig on Mars

When receiving the emergency allert Jack is driving to the mining station "Fort Solis"

"Fort Solis" is on lockdown

Mars base for 200 people in "For All Mankind" season 4

Season 4 of For All Mankind alternate history sci-fi TV series, depicting alternate 2003, "is really about the building of a new civilization on Mars" by the words of the co-creator of the series Ben Nedivi. The international Happy Valley Base, founded in 1995 during season 3 and located in Melas Chasma in the Valles Marineris canyon system on Mars, has been significantly expanded and there are around 200 people living in the base during season 4. The base is financed and operated by Mars-7 Alliance (consisting of US, USSR, ESA, North Korea, India, Japan, and the Coalition of Communist Countries for Spaceflight (CCCS)) and maintained by a private company Helios Aerospace.

Ground level of the base features several separate facilities for power generation, communications, fuel refinement, regolith processing, algae production, storage etc. and a central interconnected cluster of modules consisting of the Entrance hall for new arrivals with airlocks for the rovers, control rooms, laboratories, hydroponic farms, meeting rooms, warehouses / garages, a cafeteria, as well as the quarters for higher level personnel and astronauts / cosmonauts. The base has 5 underground sublevels, of which level 4 & 5 are still under construction in 2003 and not accessible. The sublevels house maintenance and storage rooms and additional quarters for workers. There is also a separate North Korean sector accessible only to North Koreans. The base also operates six landing pads for their orbital Hopper shuttles.

The design of the Happy Valley Base in For All Mankind is the most plausible design of a mid-sized human base on Mars that we have ever seen in a TV series or film.

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.

Here we collected high resolution shots from season 4 (downscaled from 4K UHD screens for better image quality) depicting the exterior and interior of Happy Valley Base on Mars. No images revealing major story plots are included. We will make a separate article with season 4 story spoilers after the last episode will be released on January 12. [UPDATED:]

How to steal an asteroid .. "For All Mankind" season 4

Desolate life at a homestead on Mars in Settlers (2021) movie

Settlers (2021) is a British science fiction thriller set in a Martian frontier. A small family of early settlers live alone at a homestead in a valley protected by a force field bubble that keeps breathable air inside, but soon their lonely existence is disturbed by a group of intruders. I won't spoil the plot twists of the thriller, but it has major Wild West vibes there. Here is a collection of HD screens from the movie:

Martian colonies in season 5 of The Expanse

Mars is one of the three competing powers in universe of The Expanse TV series - a political sci-fi drama set a few centuries in the future where humans have colonized the entire Solar system. Mars, governed by Martian Congressional Republic, is a militaristic and technologically advanced society of over nine billion inhabitants. Martian society had been highly mobilized towards the shared goal of terraforming Mars for over a century but in season 4 that shared goal and order of the Martian society was starting to erode as the new habitable planets beyond the rings were discovered and people realized they could build a new home there without the costly need of terraformation. That erosion continues in season 5.

In Martian scenes of season 5 the show focuses on depicting Asteria Naval Base (or Asteria NB) which is a military base and war college of the Martian Congressional Republic Navy (MCRN). Here is a collection with HD images from the Martian scenes in season 5 of The Expanse (open link in new tab to view in full resolution).

Exterior and interior of the Asteria Naval Base:

Martian mass transit network crosses canyons on cables and runs deep under ground:

Family watching news on terraformed Mars

Family watching news in their room at a human colony on partially terraformed Mars - a concept artwork by Portuguese fantasy artist Tiago da Silva (Grafik) created for upcoming computer game Terraformers. It is a Mars colonization strategy game currently being developed by indie game developer Asteroid Lab.

Note the news ticker below the main story in TV displaying: Carl Sagan National Museum opens new exhibit, "The first missions - Elon Musk" :)

Underground oasis in a Martian lava tube

Shane Powers (USA) & Linjie Wang (China) have created a design of an artificial underground oasis in a Martian lava tube for Marstopia international design contest held by Eleven Magazine. Their design named "Below Freezing" won the "honourable mention" award in the contest. Its main feature, besides utilizing natural lava tubes, is a vertical transportation system (surrounded by 3D-printed ice walls) to Mars's surface. Martian lava tubes could become very handy in creating large, radiation-protected spaces for future human colonists on Mars.

Canteen at human colony on Mars by Ozgur Saral

Concept of a canteen interior at human colony on Mars by Turkish CG artist Ozgur Saral. More of his art here.

Full demo of the CG concept:

Earthscrapers (inverted underground skyscrapers) could be perfect for Mars

When building on Mars you need to seriously consider measures to protect the inhabitants from cosmic radiation. You can cover your very first Martian outpost with few meters of regolith or use expensive materials with radiation blocking properties but for larger structures the obvious choice is to build underground. Lava tubes could be a solution but they are not present everywhere on Mars. So most likely you will need to dig your habitats.

One of the building types perfect for Mars could be earthscrapers (or would you call them marsscrapers on Mars?) - inverted underground skyscrapers with large vertical central void (covered with a transparent dome on the surface) for natural lighting. The living and public space is arranged in multiple levels encircling that central void. Here is an example of such structure designed by Fernando Castiñeira, Hernan Goldfarb, Alejandro Ispani, Alex Nelken, Javier Maratea & Malena Verni for 2007 Skyscraper Competition by eVolo.us

Simple diagram of the design:

Martian colonies in season 4 of The Expanse

Although Mars is one of the three competing powers in universe of The Expanse TV series (a political sci-fi detective set a few centuries in the future where humans have colonized the entire Solar system) only a few scenes were actually set on Mars in first three seasons of the series. That changes in season 4 where the life on Mars at last gets proper depiction.

In The Expanse Mars, governed by Martian Congressional Republic, is a militaristic and technologically advanced society of over nine billion inhabitants. It is the major competitor of Earth & Luna, governed by United Nations. Earth, dragged down by overpopulation and climate change, envies Mars because of its society's high mobilization towards the shared goal of terraforming Mars. But in season 4 that shared goal and order of the Martian society is starting to erode as the new habitable planets beyond the rings are discovered (without the costly need of being terraformed as Mars does). As the interplanetary military tension is over veterans find themselves needless in the peace time society; crime and corruption is rising, and some even manage to sell older military tech to Belter pirate gangs.

Here is a collection with HD images from the Martian scenes in season 4 of The Expanse (open link in new tab to view in full resolution):

Exterior and interior of a shipyard for Martian fleet:

Martian school kids training for exam:

Colonized Valles Marineris region on Mars from season 4 teaser of The Expanse

There are two short scenes on Mars in the latest season 4 teaser for The Expanse TV series - a political sci-fi detective set a few centuries in the future where humans have colonized the entire Solar system; Mars is one of three competing forces in the universe of The Expanse. There were three more scenes on Mars in the first teaser for season 4.

Human colonies in Valles Marineris region (horizontally flipped in the trailer for some unknown reason) on Mars:

Earth's leader Avasarala attending a diplomatic banquet on Mars:

⇛ HD images of Mars from season 2 of The Expanse TV series here

Mars base paintings by Romek Delimata

Here are several digital concept paintings of a human base on Mars by British film artist Romek Delimata, who has worked for such well-known movies / TV series as Interstellar, First Man, Westworld, Game of Thrones, Guardians of the Galaxy, Behind Enemy Lines etc. These images were made for The Last Days on Mars (2013) - a zombie virus horror thriller set on Mars.

Mars base at night:

Mars base interior:

Another version with different configuration and a rover parked next to the base: