Showing posts with label Mars Colonization. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Mars Colonization. Show all posts

Sunday, May 23, 2021

Village on partly terraformed Mars by Nuno Fontarra

Eventually Mars won't be only domed cities and underground bunkers. It will be a live planet with towns and villages.

Picture of the Day 23/05/2021 - a view of what could be a village on a partly terraformed Mars by Portuguese architect Nuno Fontarra.

Village on partly terraformed Mars by Nuno Fontarra

Saturday, May 1, 2021

Elon Musk arrives to Mars Base Alpha

Who will guess the year? SpaceX's CEO and chief designer Elon Musk finally arrives to the spaceport of Mars Base Alpha by American comics artist Eli Burton, creator of The Adventures of Starman.

Elon Musk arrives to Mars Base Alpha by RealLifeStarman

Wednesday, April 21, 2021

SpaceX Mars Base Alpha in 4K UHD quality

When Elon Musk gave his 2nd annual presentation of the Starship architecture (then called BFR or Big Falcon Rocket) in September 2017, the presentation contained an animation of Mars Base Alpha buildup. Granted, the representation looks more like Sim City on Mars with generic buildings in octagonal pattern, but it's the best visual overview of Mars Base Alpha buildup SpaceX has officially provided yet. Here are images from that animation in 4K UHD quality we haven't seen been posted anywhere else.
Closeup of Mars Base Alpha:
SpaceX's Mars Base Alpha
Buildup of Mars Base Alpha
1st stage - initial base:
SpaceX's Mars Base Alpha - 1st stage - initial base
Click HERE for 4K UHD resolution
2nd stage - mid-sized base:
SpaceX's Mars Base Alpha - 2nd stage - mid-sized base
Click HERE for 4K UHD resolution

Monday, April 12, 2021

Mars base by Mark Garlick

Picture of the Day 12/04/2021 - an early human base on Mars by British illustrator Mark Garlick. More of his art here. Note the Spirit/Opportunity rover in the field.

Mars base by Mark Garlick

Monday, April 5, 2021

First humans on Mars

Young Irish 3D artist Matthew Ryan has created a stunning animation of a SpaceX's Starship getting people from Earth to Mars for the first time ever. Here is the final scene with a group of Starmen disembarking from Starship on Mars:

First humans on Mars: Starmen disembarking from SpaceX Starship on Mars by Matthew Ryan
Full animation here:

Tuesday, March 30, 2021

Astronaut relaxing near a SpaceX Starship spaceport

Picture of the Day 30/03/2021 - Astronaut leaning against his Mars rover derived from a retro car near a SpaceX Starship spaceport by American video game concept artist Darren Bacon in collaboration with parody account Bored Elon.

Astronaut relaxing near a SpaceX Starship spaceport by Darren Bacon and Bored Elon

Sunday, March 21, 2021

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:
Mars colony (Asteria Naval Base) in Season 5 of The Expanse

Mars colony interior (Asteria Naval Base) in Season 5 of The Expanse
Martian mass transit network crosses canyons on cables and runs deep under ground:
Cable car on Mars in Season 5 of The Expanse

Mars colony metro in Season 5 of The Expanse

Saturday, March 13, 2021

СССР-2061 - a retrofuturistic vision of Soviet Union on Mars

Project "СССР-2061" is a community of Russian artists and writers envisioning Soviet Union in 2061 in an alternate reality. In 2011 they held their 1st arts contest asking participants to envision Soviet Union on Mars 50 years into the future. Here are some of the artworks from the contest.
Soviet spaceport in Valles Marineris on Mars by Igor Savin:
Soviet spaceport on Mars by Igor Savin for CCCP-2061 contest

Soviet spaceport on Mars by Igor Savin for CCCP-2061 contest
Domed soviet colony on Mars by Grinya Lesnoy:
Domed soviet colony on Mars by Grinya Lesnoy for CCCP-2061 contest

Thursday, March 11, 2021

Sunday, March 7, 2021

SpaceX 100+ Starship fleet arriving to Mars

Video animation with SpaceX's colonial fleet of 100+ Starships arriving to Mars by Austrian 3D environment artist Roger Bootsma. More of his art here.

Friday, February 12, 2021

Spaceport on Phobos by Thomas Peters

Picture of the Day 12/02/2021 - Spaceport on Phobos, the closest of two natural Martian moons, by graphic designer and illustrator Thomas Peters (Drell-7). More of his space art here.

Spaceport on Phobos by Thomas Peters (Drell-7)

Saturday, February 6, 2021

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" :)

Family watching news on terraformed Mars by Tiago da Silva for Terraformers game

Friday, January 15, 2021

Steel factory on Mars by Dmitrii Ustinov

Picture of the Day 15/01/2021 - Mars is about twice as rich in iron as Earth is; in fact its distinctive red color is due to iron oxides on its surface. So making steel shouldn't be a problem. Here is an artwork of a steel factory (mill) on Mars producing raw steel blocks by Russian artist Dmitrii Ustinov. More of his art here.

Steel factory on Mars by Dmitrii Ustinov

Tuesday, December 15, 2020

Painting of Terraformed Mars by Dmytro Ivashchenko

Picture of the Day 15/12/2020 - Oil painting of terraformed Mars with Valles Marineris region at the center by Ukrainian freelance artist Dmytro Ivashchenko. More of his art here.

Painting of Terraformed Mars by Dmytro Ivashchenko

Thursday, November 26, 2020

Human colony in a Martian crater by James Vaughan

Picture of the Day 26/11/2020 - Digital painting of human colony in a Martian crater by photographer and concept artist James Vaughan. Note the Lockheed Martin's Mars lander launching from the colony. More of Vaughan's aerospace and defense concept art here.

Human colony in a Martian crater by James Vaughan - closeup
Full painting with a man looking at the colony through a window:
Human colony in a Martian crater by James Vaughan

Thursday, November 12, 2020

Mars base in a crater by Sam Taylor

Picture of the Day 12/11/2020 - Retro style illustration of a human base in a Martian crater by digital artist Sam Taylor for his poster "Mars - Adventure Awaits". More of his art here.

Mars base in a crater by Sam Taylor

Tuesday, November 3, 2020

SpaceX: No Earth-based government has authority or sovereignty over Martian activities

Free Mars poster for Total Recall (1990) by Rhys Cooper
It has been revealed that in Starlink's terms of service SpaceX requires beta testers to recognize Mars as a "free planet". Under the section "Governing Law" the parties agree that:
"For Services provided on Mars, or in transit to Mars via Starship or other colonization spacecraft, the parties recognize Mars as a free planet and that no Earth-based government has authority or sovereignty over Martian activities. Accordingly, Disputes will be settled through self-governing principles, established in good faith, at the time of Martian settlement."
Interestingly the terms for the Moon are different:
"For Services provided to, on, or in orbit around the planet Earth or the Moon, these Terms and any disputes between us arising out of or related to these Terms, including disputes regarding arbitrability will be governed by and construed in accordance with the laws of the State of California in the United States."
Starlink is a satellite internet constellation currently being deployed by SpaceX and it will provide high-speed low-latency internet anywhere on the world (and beyond). The constellation will ultimately consist of thousands of mass-produced small satellites in low Earth orbit (LEO), working in combination with ground transceivers.

As far as we know it is the first time any entity with real potential to send humans to Mars (defined by us as governments and private corporations with the independent human spaceflight capability, which are only four: Russia (since 1961), US (since 1962), China (since 2003) and SpaceX (since 2020)) has declared that Mars should be governed under the principles of self-government.

It remains to be seen if SpaceX will be in power do define that (US government can easily stop SpaceX operations until the company abides to the US and international law) and most likely it's just a way for Elon Musk to draw attention to the upcoming Starlink public release, but it would be cool to see Mars as an independent planet even before the timeframe we have speculated: internal self-governance in 2080s and complete independence in the 22nd century.

*Cover poster "Free Mars" by Rhys Cooper for Total Recall (1990) movie.

Sunday, September 27, 2020

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.

Underground oasis in a Martian lava tube by Shane Powers & Linjie Wang for Marstopia design contest