Mars colony by Mauricio Pampin

Picture of the Day 19/7/2019 - Mars colony with several interconnected geodesic domes by Canadian concept artist Mauricio Pampin. More of his art here.

HD quality official renders of SpaceX Starship at Mars Base Alpha and on the Moon

In April Elon Musk on his Twitter profile teased two new renders with SpaceX's Starship on the Moon and at Mars Base Alpha. Unfortunately those were low resolution images. Now we have a HD resolution versions (press Open link in new tab to view) of those renders from SpaceX's Principal Mars Development Engineer Paul Wooster's presentation at Humans to Mars summit 2019 organized by Explore Mars.

Building an industrial complex on Mars by William Black

To survive on Mars longterm humans will need to live off the land (a practice in space exploration called In Situ Resource Utilization or shorter ISRU), so we will need to extract, process and store local resources of the planet. Here is William Black's artistic vision of building an industrial complex on Mars at Syria Planum, located south from Noctis Labyrinthus. More of his space concept art here.

Mars colony in artificial, domed canyon

Picture of the Day 4/7/2019 - design of what could be a human colony in a narrow, artificial, domed canyon on Mars by LAVA architects. This image was done for a design of Masdar City (next to Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates) - a futuristic sustainable city project in development and intended to be a hub for cleantech companies.

Mars Ice Home concept by NASA, SEArch+ & Clouds AO

Mars Ice Home is a feasibility study conducted at NASA Langley Research Center in 2016 in collaboration with human-centered space design studio SEArch+ and architects from CloudsAO. Responding to the problem of galactic cosmic radiation being the most significant issue for human health on long duration Mars surface missions, the concept incorporates in situ resource utilization derived water-ice for radiation shielding and as a structural component.

Water, a hydrogen-rich material, is an excellent shielding material for galactic cosmic rays – and many areas of Mars have abundant water ice just below the surface. The Ice Home concept balances the need to provide protection from radiation, without the drawbacks of an underground habitat. The design maximizes the thickness of ice above the crew quarters to reduce radiation exposure while also still allowing light to pass through ice and surrounding materials. The water-ice fills and freezes within cellular pockets of the precision-manufactured inflatable membrane. The interior of the habitat would be insulated from the ice with a cellular layer of carbon dioxide, which can easily be extracted from the Martian atmosphere.

3D-printed Mars habitat MARSHA by AI SpaceFactory

Architectural and technology design agency AI SpaceFactory is the team that won NASA’s 3D-Printed Habitat Challenge for Mars. Their design "MARSHA" of an egg-shaped, dual shell habitat is a principal rethinking of what a Martian habitat could be - not another low-lying dome or confined, half-buried structure but a bright, multi-level, corridor-free home that stands upright on the surface of Mars.

Here are some impressive conceptual design images for the project:

NatGeo's MARS TV series: drama part of full season 2

Most of the criticism against National Geographic Channel's MARS TV series is related to the concept of joining drama with documentary. In a result the viewer can't fully enjoy any of the two parts without interruptions from the other part every few minutes. So here you can watch only the drama part of full season 2 of the show without documentary cut-ins.

In season 1 the series depicted first human mission to Mars and hardships of building a base on Mars in a lava tube. Season 2 is digging deeper into the challenges of life on Mars, covering everything from the first Martian-born baby to surviving the common cold to the first commercial efforts by Lukrum Corporation to exploit the planet's resources.

Watch full episodes of the show here:

• Season 1
• Season 2

ESA's base on Mars by Martin Kornmesser

Picture of the Day 25/6/2019 - Concept image of European Space Agency's (ESA) base on Mars by German graphic designer Martin Kornmesser.

Mars colony concept by Dmitry Azarov for National Geographic's MARS TV series

Russian 3D artist Dmitry Azarov has made some concept renders of human colony on Mars for National Geographic's "MARS" TV series (season 3 ?). More of his art here.

Underground atrium on Mars by Vincent Callebaut

Picture of the Day 10/6/2019 - design of what could be an interior view of an underground atrium on Mars by French eco architect Vincent Callebaut. This image was done for a design project "Wooden Orchids" of an eco-responsible shopping mall in Ruichang, China.

Human colony on Mars for Buzz Aldrin's "Welcome to Mars" book

Impressive cover art of human colony on Mars with several domes and parks for "Welcome to Mars: Making a Home on the Red Planet" book for kids. It was written by Marianne J. Dyson and Apollo 11 astronaut Buzz Aldrin (2nd on the Moon) and published in 2015 by National Geographic Children's Books.

Mars base by Sergge Dobrovolski

Picture of the Day 31/5/2019 - Mars base by Russian photographer and fantasy artist Sergge Dobrovolski.
More of his art here.

Mars base laboratory interior by Douglas Shrock

Picture of the Day 25/5/2019 - Digital painting of a female scientist at Mars base laboratory watching the arrival of a lander by American sci-fi artist Douglas Shrock (Shrox). More of his Mars art here.

Mars colony by Space is More & Project Scorpio for Mars Colony Prize contest

This year The Mars Society is holding Mars Colony Prize - a contest for "the best plan for a Mars colony of 1000 people. The colony should be self-supporting to the maximum extent possible - i.e. relying on a minimum mass of imports from Earth. The goal is to have the colony be able to produce all the food, clothing, shelter, power, common consumer products, vehicles, and machines for 1000 people, with only the minimum number of key components, such as advanced electronics needing to be imported from Earth." Submissions for the contest are now closed and the winners will be chosen at the International Mars Society convention in Los Angeles, California in September 2019.

Here are images from the submission by the Polish team of Space is More & Project Scorpio.

Green Marsopolis by Annibale Siconolfi (Inward)

Cityscape of green Marsopolis with parks and large biodomes - a city on Mars in a far future by Italian futuristic 3D artist Annibale Siconolfi (Inward). More of his art here.

He has made also a different version - a bit depressing industrial Red Marsopolis.

Red Marsopolis by Annibale Siconolfi (Inward)

Cityscape of red, industrial Marsopolis - a city on Mars in a far future by Italian futuristic 3D artist Annibale Siconolfi (Inward). More of his art here.

He has made also a different version - Green Marsopolis with parks and large biodomes.

Mars base concept by Wojciech 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 Wojciech Fikus (Wojtek 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:

New official renders of SpaceX Starship on the Moon & at Mars Base Alpha

Today Elon Musk revealed on his Twitter two more renders of SpaceX's Starship on the Moon and at Mars Base Alpha:

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:

3D-printed Mars base by Hassell & EOC

Design studio Hassell and structural engineers Eckersley O’Callaghan (EOC) is one of the 10 finalist teams in phase 3 (virtual model stage) of NASA’s 3D-Printed Habitat Challenge for Mars. Both companies partnered to design a shell, which could be constructed entirely by autonomous robots using Mars’ natural regolith, to protect the astronauts from the radiation, as well as micrometeorite strikes. The human-centric design was made with an approach that moves beyond the idea of astronauts as purely operators, to create a habitat where people can not only survive life on Mars, but really thrive there. The concept is well explained in this video, which forms part of the final submission and was made in collaboration with the "LightField London":



Conceptual design images for the project: