In "Captain Imagine: Tour of the Solar System" (2020) children's book by Karim Elmahmoudi Captain Imagine, a futuristic space explorer, takes young Emily and her brother Simon on a guided tour of our Solar System. The retrofuturistic illustrations for the book were created by American digital painter Jon Hrubesch. Here is one of the illustrations where Captain Imagine and the two children are exploring a Martian canyon.
Showing posts with label Mars Exploration. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Mars Exploration. Show all posts
Sunday, February 26, 2023
Sunday, February 5, 2023
Retrofuturistic Mars exploration base by Pascal Lee
In 2021 planetary scientist, the director of Haughton-Mars Project, Pascal Lee created a painting with the same, slightly updated scene of the first human exploration mission on Mars as in Chesley Bonestell's famous painting "Exploring Mars" featured in the 1956 book "The Exploration of Mars" by Willy Ley and Wernher Von Braun.
Highlighting Bonestell's legacy, Pascal Lee wrote: "In painting this new "Exploring Mars", I wanted to pay tribute to the grand master of space art and his creation of an iconic classic, but also update elements of the landscape and hardware in light of new knowledge gained about Mars in the intervening 65 years and evolutions in our thinking about future Mars exploration systems and human surface operations."
Highlighting Bonestell's legacy, Pascal Lee wrote: "In painting this new "Exploring Mars", I wanted to pay tribute to the grand master of space art and his creation of an iconic classic, but also update elements of the landscape and hardware in light of new knowledge gained about Mars in the intervening 65 years and evolutions in our thinking about future Mars exploration systems and human surface operations."
Comparison of Bonestell's (1956) and Lee's (2021) "Exploring Mars":
Sunday, January 29, 2023
First SpaceX astronauts stepping down on Mars; animation by iamVisual
Saturday, January 21, 2023
Astronaut looking at rocket launch tower on Mars by Mark Garlick

Tuesday, December 6, 2022
Exploration rover in Noctis Labyrinthus, Mars by Ludovic Celle

Monday, October 24, 2022
Astronaut exploring a cliff on Mars by Pat Rawlings

Tuesday, August 16, 2022
"For All Mankind" season 3 brings space race to Mars
Soviets and US are joined by a private company Helios for a three way race to Mars in the alternate 1990s of For All Mankind season 3. The alternate history sci-fi TV series are exploring the idea of never ending space race if Soviets would have beaten US in the race for the Moon. In first two seasons of the show the focus was 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.
The intention of the show is each season to jump about a decade further into the increasingly diverging reality of the show. Season 3 depicts alternate 1992 to 1995 when a race to establish first human base on Mars is facing various dangers for all of the participants. Here is a large collection of HD images from season 3 of the show. First part of the collection contains images with only minor spoilers, not revealing major story plots besides those already known from season 3 trailer.
The intention of the show is each season to jump about a decade further into the increasingly diverging reality of the show. Season 3 depicts alternate 1992 to 1995 when a race to establish first human base on Mars is facing various dangers for all of the participants. Here is a large collection of HD images from season 3 of the show. First part of the collection contains images with only minor spoilers, not revealing major story plots besides those already known from season 3 trailer.
The actual race starts with Helio's Phoenix launching from low Earth orbit, NASA's Sojourner from the Moon and Soviet Mars-94 directly from Earth:
Wednesday, May 25, 2022
3 way race to Mars in season 3 of "For All Mankind" alternate history TV series

As hinted in the final scene of season 2 Mars will be the central stage in season 3 of the show. Recently released season 3 trailer shows that the Soviets and US are joined by a private company Helios for a three way race to Mars in 1995. Here you can watch the trailer and see some screenshots from it. The season 3 will start airing in June 10 on Apple TV+.
Helios' Mars mobile habitat:
3 rivals racing for Mars in season 3 of For All Mankind TV series:
NASA's spaceship arriving to Mars:
Friday, December 24, 2021
Merry Christmas from Santa Claus on Mars!
Sunday, November 28, 2021
Human mission to Martian moons Phobos and Deimos by Pascal Lee

Spaceship approaching Mars with Phobos and Deimos in sight:
Landing on Deimos, the farthest and smallest of the two Martian moons:
Astronauts exploring Deimos:
Landing on Phobos, the closest and largest of the two Martian moons:
Monday, October 18, 2021
Mars exploration roadtrip by Pascal Lee
Over the years planetary scientist, the director of Haughton-Mars Project, Pascal Lee has created a set of paintings depicting a Mars exploration roadtrip. Here are several of them. More of his Mars related paintings here.
Stopping at a crater in Utopia Planitia:
Astronauts exploring a lava tube on Mars:
Mars exploration rover:
Astronaut exploring Mars:
Friday, October 8, 2021
SpaceX Starship on Mars by Erik Corshammar
Saturday, September 4, 2021
Mars exploration expedition returning to their base
Mars exploration expedition finally returning to their base at sunset before the onset of a cold Martian night by Mondolithic Studios (Chris Wren & Kenn Brown).
Saturday, August 28, 2021
First Russian cosmonauts on Mars by Alexander Ovcharenko
First Russian cosmonauts on Mars by freelance concept artist Alexander Ovcharenko (Александр Овчаренко) for Project "СССР-2061" - 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. More images for the project here.
Sunday, August 1, 2021
Astronauts exploring Martian canyon by Mark Garlick
Picture of the Day 01/08/2021 - two astronauts exploring a canyon on Mars by British illustrator Mark Garlick. More of his art here.
Friday, February 26, 2021
SpaceX Mars exploration rover concept by Alexander Svanidze
Russian game artist Alexander Svanidze has created his concept of SpaceX's Mars exploration rover (CyberRover) made by Tesla. More of his art here.




Friday, February 19, 2021
Landing site of Perseverance Mars 2020 rover
On February 18th NASA successfully landed its Mars 2020 Perseverance rover on Mars in Jezero Crater (Western Isidis Planitia). As you may wonder where it is, we placed Perseverance's landing location on the map of Mars by National Geographic Society:
Open link in new tab to view the map in full resolution.
NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory has created an animated flyover of the Martian surface explaining why Jezero Crater, a 28-mile-wide ancient lake-delta system, is the best place for Perseverance to find and collect promising samples for a possible future return to Earth. The animation also reveals the route Perseverance will travel in the first years after landing:
Wednesday, February 17, 2021
NASA Mars 2020 Perseverance rover landing in infographics
Tomorrow, on February 18, NASA will land its Mars 2020 Perseverance rover on Mars in Jezero Crater (Western Isidis Planitia). Its mission is to collect samples for later retrieval and it is accompanied by a small reconnaissance drone-helicopter Ingenuity - the first such craft on Mars. We will be able to watch NASA's broadcast of the landing here (starting on 19:15 UTC).
Here is an excellent infographic of Perseverance's landing sequence by Australian space illustrator Tony Bela:
Open link in new tab to view the infographic in its original resolution.
Thursday, December 24, 2020
Tuesday, October 27, 2020
Mars exploration caravan at a giant spaceship wreck by Wayne Haag
Picture of the Day 27/10/2020 - Oil painting of Mars exploration caravan at a giant spaceship wreck by Australian concept artist Wayne Haag. More of his art here.

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