"For All Mankind" season 4 - concept art for Helios' Mars colony and space transport

In episode 9 of For All Mankind 3rd season Helios' CEO Dev Ayesa presented a vision for company's next generation spaceship, Mars orbital station and colonies on Mars, some of which we will most likely see realized in season 4 of the show which will air this autumn. We obtained high resolution concept images used in Dev's presentation, you can view further ahead.

For All Mankind is an alternate history sci-fi TV series exploring the idea of never ending space race if Soviets would have beaten US in the race for the Moon:

• 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, depicting the alternate 1983, both bases have been expanded and the superpowers compete for resources on the Lunar surface;
• In season 3, depicting alternate 1992 to 1995, Soviets and US are joined by a private company Helios and.. North Korea for a four way race to establish the first human base on Mars.

The intention of the show is each season to jump about a decade further into the increasingly diverging reality of the show. The final scene of season 3 hints season 4 will depict alternate 2003 or so.

Concept art for Helios' Mars colony:

Concept art for Helios' spaceship Calypso:

Concept art for Helios' Mars orbital space station Phoenix-T1:

Lander descending to Mars colony by Michael Carroll

Picture of the Day 15/03/2023 - a lander, preparing to jettison its parachutes, descending to a human colony on Mars by American space artist and science writer Michael Carroll. The colony features several landing pads, buried habitats, several rows of large greenhouses and a nuclear power plant shielded by the rim of a nearby crater.

SpaceX Starship at a small outpost on Mars by iamVisual

Picture of the Day 18/02/2023 - SpaceX's Starship and a pair of Tesla Cybertrucks parked at a small outpost on Mars by YouTuber iamVisual.

Terraformed & colonized Mars as it would be seen from space

Terraformed and colonized Mars as it would be seen from Phobos, the closest of two natural Martian moons, by British illustrator Mark Garlick. More of his art here.

Martian city lights from space

Two FHD wallpapers (1920 x 1080) with the city lights of a large city on Mars as they would be seen from space. The images were created by an uncredited artist(s) for HP's "Mars Home Planet" rendering challenge in 2018 inviting participants "to imagine, create and virtually experience a sophisticated civilization on Mars. A new home for one million humans."

Astronaut looking at rocket launch tower on Mars by Mark Garlick

Picture of the Day 21/01/2023 - astronaut looking at a rocket launch tower on Mars by British illustrator Mark Garlick. More of his art here.

Lockheed Martin's vision for Mars base in 2050

At its "Destination: Space 2050" event in October Lockheed Martin (one of the largest American aerospace, advanced technologies and defense companies) shared its vision of a vibrant space economy in the year 2050. Here Lockheed Martin envisions a future on Mars with "power beaming, laser communications and robotic in-situ construction for a sustainable living and economic environment". Note company's conceptual Mars lander on the landing pad.

Lockheed Martin's animation of "Destination: Space 2050" vision:

Phobos as a space elevator for Mars

Building a Martian space elevator would be complicated by the Martian moon Phobos, which is in a low orbit at ~6,028 km above the Martian surface and intersects the Equator regularly, thus getting in the way of a traditional geostationary space elevator. But there is an idea instead to build a space elevator from Phobos itself.

Phobos is tidally locked to Mars (as the Moon is to Earth), where the same side of the moon stays facing the planet. A space elevator could extend down from Phobos to Mars 6,000 km, about 28 kilometers from the surface, and just out of the atmosphere of Mars. A similar space elevator cable could extend out 6,000 km the opposite direction that would counterbalance Phobos. In total the space elevator would extend out over 12,000 km which would be below Areostationary orbit of Mars (17,032 km).

A rocket launch would still be needed to get the rocket and cargo to the beginning of the space elevator 28 km above the surface. The surface of Mars is rotating at 0.25 km/s at the equator and the bottom of the space elevator would be rotating around Mars at 0.77 km/s, so only 0.52 km/s of Delta-v would be needed to get to the space elevator. Phobos orbits at 2.15 km/s and the outer most part of the space elevator would rotate around Mars at 3.52 km/s.

In our speculative Mars Colonization Timeline we have estimated such a Phobos-based space elevator could be built as soon as in 2080s–2090s. In adition to the space elevator there could be built a shuttle port at the summit of Pavonis Mons – the Martian volcano practically on the equator – for shuttles heading to and coming from Phobos space elevator. The summit of Pavonis Mons is standing 14 km above Mars' mean surface level (way above the denser part of the atmosphere), halving the needed trip to the shuttle platform at space elavator's lower tip 28 km above the surface.

Martian city on terraformed Mars

Martian city on terraformed Mars – a gameplay art from Terraformers – Mars colonization turn based strategy game released in early access on April 2022 and developed by indie game developer Asteroid Lab. In about a week the game will get a major update, including the ability to continue your game after achieving a victory condition, thus further expanding your civilization on Mars.

SpaceX Mars Base Alpha by Caspar Stanley

Picture of the Day 26/11/2022 - SpaceX's Starman looking at Mars Base Alpha from the observation deck of a Starship by Danish freelance 3D artist Caspar Stanley.

Eco-futuristic settlement in a Martian canyon by Lukas Yosi Filip

Czech architectural CG artist Lukas Yosi Filip has created a set of images of what could be an eco-futuristic settlement in a terraformed Martian canyon for his Desert Ark concept (the last sanctuaries of human knowledge, culture and research in a dystopian post-climate change world where deserts has taken over the Earth).

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:

SpaceX Starship at spaceport on Mars by Colin Doublier

Picture of the Day 16/10/2022 - Painting of SpaceX Starship preparing for launch from Mars Base Alpha's spaceport by French urban artist Colin Doublier. More of his art here.

Mars Base Alpha in a crater by Anastasia Volyk & Vladyslav Lysenko

Ukrainian 3D artists Anastasia Volyk and Vladyslav Lysenko have created a concept for SpaceX's Mars Base Alpha in a small Martian crater. The individual habitats scattered on the inner slope of the crater wall are connected with the center of the colony via partially underground hyperloop lines. In the further future hyperloop lines could connect Mars Base Alpha with other human colonies on Mars. I would place Starship launch pads outside the crater.

Mars colony in Moonshot (2022) movie

Moonshot is recently released (March 2022) science fiction teen comedy set in 2049 when trips to Mars has become routine for skilled or wealthy people. A rich, skilled girl (Lana Condor) and a poor, "mediocre" boy (Cole Sprouse) travel together to Mars, each for their own reasons, and after arrival they both discover those reasons were wrong. Although the movie by itself is quite silly with childish dialogues and cheap interior sets, the CGI for Mars colony exteriors is really good. Here are some HD images from the movie:

Painting of a human base on Mars by Dmytro Ivashchenko

Picture of the Day 30/06/2022 - Sunset on Mars - oil painting of a human base on Mars by Ukrainian freelance artist Dmytro Ivashchenko. More of his art here.

How we will travel beyond Mars - shortfilm by Erik Wernquist

Swedish digital artist Erik Wernquist, the author of the stunning shortfilm "Wanderers" which depicts a vision of humanity's expansion into the Solar System, has created another inspirational shortfilm "Go Incredibly Fast" "to identify a few propulsion approaches we might utilize to send humans to the worlds in our Solar System beyond Mars and reach out across the vast distances between stars."

Here you can watch the shortfilm and see some Mars-related images from it:

Astronaut in front of Mars colony:

Space station orbiting Mars:

SpaceX Starships at Mars Base Alpha by TijnM

YouTuber TijnM has created an animation of SpaceX's Starship traveling to Mars and landing at Mars Base Alpha. Here are two renders of the base made for the animation:

Here is the full animation:

Militech colony on Mars in Cyberpunk 2077

Militech is a megacorporation specializing in weapons manufacturing and private military contracting in the alternate universe of the futuristic dystopian Cyberpunk franchise. It dominates much of the New United States of America's (NUSA) economy and politics, with the last few NUSA Presidents being ex-Militech executives.

We gave a brief insight of the space travel in Cyberpunk world when speculating about possible space-related content in Cyberpunk 2077 - a recent first-person open world role playing video game set in the universe of Cyberpunk. When playing the game we came across a short news segment announcing Militech's plans to construct a new colony on Mars and beginning selling (expensive) residential modules in the residential area of the colony:

Full news segment about Militech's new colony on Mars:

Mars Base Alpha by Colin Doublier

Picture of the Day 19/02/2022 - Painting of several SpaceX Starship launch towers equipped with Mechazilla catch system in front of Mars Base Alpha by French urban artist Colin Doublier. More of his art here.