Human colony on terraformed Mars by Tiago da Silva

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.

Martian city wall by Jon Hrubesch

Gigantic wall of a futuristic city on partly terraformed Mars by American digital painter Jon Hrubesch. More of his sci-fi art here.

Closeup of the rooftop gardens. Mars is terraformed to the level where water can be in liquid state and trees can grow in open atmosphere.

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:

Buildup of Mars Base Alpha

1st stage - initial base:

Click HERE for 4K UHD resolution

2nd stage - mid-sized base:

Click HERE for 4K UHD resolution

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:

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:

Domed soviet colony on Mars by Grinya Lesnoy:

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" :)

Mars colony by Dotted Yeti

Picture of the Day 05/02/2021 - Radially built human colony on Mars by Dotted Yeti.

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.

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.

Full painting with a man looking at the colony through a window:

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:

Total Recall (1990) concept art by Ron Cobb

Australian artist Ron Cobb has done concept art for many famous sci-fi movies, as Star Wars, Alien, Back to the Future and countless other. One of the movies he has worked on is a movie known to all Mars fans - Total Recall (1990), stared by Arnold Schwarzenegger, Rachel Ticotin, Sharon Stone and Michael Ironside and directed by Paul Verhoeven. Here are some historic concept art images created by Ron Cobb for the famous movie:

Maglev train connecting Martian colonies

Mars colony exterior

Mars shuttle

Mars colony on both sides of a canyon by Mondolithic Studios

Picture of the Day 5/9/2020 - Modular multi-level human colony on Mars situated on both sides of a canyon by Mondolithic Studios (Chris Wren & Kenn Brown).

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:

Domed Mars Colony by Arss Design

Picture of the Day 19/8/2020 - human colony under a dome on Mars by 3D artist Arss Design.

How SpaceX Mars Colony could look like in a few decades

Polish 3D artist Andrzej Pawelec has created his concept how SpaceX's Mars Colony could look like in a few decades with thousands of inhabitants. Here is detailed animation and drawings of his concept:

Morning at a futuristic city on Mars by Christian Hecker

Picture of the Day 8/6/2020 - wallpaper with a woman waking up in the morning at a futuristic city on terraformed Mars by German digital artist Christian Hecker. More of his art here.

(Open link in new tab to view ⇩ in HD wallpaper resolution)

Martian colonies in Babylon 5 TV series

Babylon 5 (1994-1998) was a popular sci-fi TV show in mid-1990s. Mars is one of the secondary locations in the show coming into spotlight in the second half of season 4. In the universe of Babylon 5 the rapid colonization and terraformation of Mars starts in mid-22nd century with only limited scientific missions before that. As in almost all fiction about colonization of Mars, eventually there rises a rebellion against Earth's control with an aim for Martian independence. There are around 2 million inhabitants on Mars at the time of events depicted in the show. You can read about Mars in the universe of Babylon 5 here.

Babylon 5 was one of the first TV shows / movies heavily utilizing CGI to depict the exteriors of a human colony on Mars. At the time most filmmakers used miniature sets for that purpose, as in the famous Total Recall (1990). Here is an ultimate collection of CGI scenes set on Mars in Babylon 5; you won't find more comprehensive such collection anywhere in the internet. Take into account the CGI scenes were done in mid-1990s with very limited graphics processing power so the resolution is low.

Family on Mars by Patrick Leger

Picture of the Day 14/4/2020 - retro style illustration with family exploring surroundings of a Mars colony by American illustrator Patrick Leger. Note the boy pointing at blue Earth in the Martian sky :) More of Leger's art here.

Mars colony illustrations by Luis Peres

Nice illustrations of a human colony on Mars by Portuguese fantasy artist Luis Peres for "Generation Mars: Book One - Scratching the Surface" by Douglas Meredith. The goal of this book (published on August 2019) and its upcoming series is to provide younger readers with more serious and realistic science fiction that still tackles the main “what if” quality of the genre. It gives a glimpse into what life on Mars might be like for kids just like them.

The main character, Cas, is the first human child ever born on Mars. Martian kids are living what is, to them, ordinary lives in their underground colony, but for the first time they will be allowed to see and explore the surface of their homeworld. The details of the habitat, its life-support systems, and surface suits are rooted in realistic science and technology, with further details explained in a postscript to the book. Future books of the series will address fundamental issues of survival on Mars: air, shelter, water, food, etc.