Jake Robins from WeMartians Podcast has created a map of possible landing sites for SpaceX's first Red Dragon lander and NASA's Mars 2020 / ESA&Roscosmos's ExoMars rovers.
Red X = crashed/failed landings
Green circle = successful landings
Yellow ? mark = candidate sites for Mars2020/ExoMars
Watch the full season 1 episodes of National Geographic Channel's "Mars" TV series here. The fictional documentary series are depicting the first human mission to Mars, the subsequent building of the first human base on Mars in a lava tube and the further steps for colonization of Mars till the end of 21st century.
Here are some HD images from National Geographic Channel's upcoming "Mars" TV series which will be broadcasted worldwide starting on November 14th. The fictional documentary series will depict the first human mission to Mars, the subsequent building of the first human base on Mars in a lava tube and the further steps for colonization of Mars till the end of 21st century.
Here are also a bunch of trailers and video clips from the upcoming series. Open link in new tab to view in full resolution:
Journey to Space is a 2015 3D documentary which "unveils a new era of unprecedented deep space exploration" presented by Boeing and Toyota. In the ending it features a good animation of NASA's Journey to Mars mission. Here are some HD quality screens of it.
(Open link in new tab to view ⇩ in full resolution)
Picture of the Day 31/7/16 - Concept art for SpaceX's Mars Colonial Transporter by Richard Heidmann from the French chapter of The Mars Society (Association Planète Mars). You can also read his speculations of the possible MCP mission architecture details here.
As the day the SpaceX CEO Elon Musk intends to unveil (at the International Astronautical Congress 26-30 September 2016 in Guadalajara, Mexico) details of its 'Mars Colonial Transporter' (MCT) mission architecture is nearing, we will mostly dedicate our 'Picture of the Day' awards to the fan concept art of the MCT.
In recent months NASA has released some exciting videos visualizing its "Journey to Mars". What is more important - they represent a conceptual shift from Apollo's style approach [every expedition to it's own location] to a more longsighted approach - every expedition to the same one location. At the workshop in October, 2015 NASA officials revealed that "human exploration of Mars is not planned as a single mission, but a series of three to five expeditions, each with a crew of four to six, lasting about 500 Martian days each. All would land in the same exploration zone, or EZ. The plan includes the construction of a surface field station to be located in the center of the exploration." It means that NASA's "Journey to Mars" mission concept has become more friendly to a goal of a permanent human colony on Mars.
In the time we all are waiting for the upcoming sci-fi blockbuster The Martian I decided to watch again and review Red Planet (2000) - a sci-fi movie stared by Val Kilmer and Carrie-Anne Moss with quite similar plot (astronauts trying to survive and get off Mars) as the The Martian but undeservedly low scored by the most critics.
Story
In the first part of 21st century humans have totally polluted Earth and now are remotely trying to terraform Mars to make it a second home for humanity. For 20 years everything seems to be going according to the plan - temperatures on Mars has been raised and dispatched algae has been starting to cover more and more of the planet introducing oxygen in its atmosphere. Suddenly all the algae vanishes and there is no other way but to send a manned mission to find out - why this is happening.
It is year 2056 and a crew of 6 is being sent to Mars aboard the "Mars-1" in the first manned mission to Mars. When they reach the orbit of Mars their ship is struck by a particle burst from an unexpectedly powerful Solar flare. In result the electronics of Mars-1 is fried and fire is spreading through all the ship. 5 of 6 crew members eject the ship with landing module but the only female - ship's captain Bowman (Carrie-Anne Moss) - stays on Mars-1 to save the ship.
The upcoming sci-fi movie "The Martian" is based on the novel by Andy Weir and is directed by Ridley Scott (known for Alien, Blade Runner, Gladiator, Black Hawk Down, Prometheus and countless other movies). The Martian will hit theaters mostly on early October 2015 (see full list of release dates here). Plot in brief: "During a manned mission to Mars, astronaut Mark Watney (Matt Damon) is presumed dead after a fierce storm and left behind by his crew. But Watney has survived and finds himself stranded and alone on the hostile planet. With only meager supplies, he must draw upon his ingenuity, wit and spirit to subsist and find a way to signal to Earth that he is alive. Millions of miles away, NASA and a team of international scientists work tirelessly to bring “the Martian” home, while his crewmates concurrently plot a daring, if not impossible rescue mission. As these stories of incredible bravery unfold, the world comes together to root for Watney’s safe return."
My first thoughts - Awesome! If the movie will be as good as the trailers The Martian will become the BEST MARS MOVIE EVER, overthrowing Total Recall from that throne. The Martian will hit theaters mostly on early October 2015 (see full list of release dates here).
The Martian is based on the novel by Andy Weir and is directed by Ridley Scott (known for Alien, Blade Runner, Gladiator, Black Hawk Down, Prometheus and countless other movies). Plot in brief: "During a manned mission to Mars, astronaut Mark Watney (Matt Damon) is presumed dead after a fierce storm and left behind by his crew. But Watney has survived and finds himself stranded and alone on the hostile planet. With only meager supplies, he must draw upon his ingenuity, wit and spirit to subsist and find a way to signal to Earth that he is alive. Millions of miles away, NASA and a team of international scientists work tirelessly to bring “the Martian” home, while his crewmates concurrently plot a daring, if not impossible rescue mission. As these stories of incredible bravery unfold, the world comes together to root for Watney’s safe return."
In a recent article "Traffic around Mars gets busy" the NASA/JPL summed up some facts about spacecraft currently orbiting Mars. The most interesting is the provided graphic of their orbits around Mars (together with planet's two natural satellites Phobos & Deimos):
So there are 5 active Mars orbiters currently orbiting the planet:
Picture of the Day 25/4/15 - Spaceship taking off from Mars (1990) by space illustrator Pat Rawlings. His description about this drawing you can read here.
4 part video interview with Robert Zubrin, the president of The Mars Society, around the main subject - Why we should go to Mars? The interview was done by moonandback.com in 2012. Zubrin's and The Mars Society's efforts towards the manned mission to Mars was depicted in details in The Mars Underground documentary.
1. part - about Zubrin's career in space and the path that led to the founding of the Mars Society.
Picture of the Day 23/2/15 - Spaceship in Mars orbit by Tim Flattery from his concept art for Mission to Mars. More of his concept art for movies here.
Watch the full season 1 episodes of National Geographic Channel's 
.jpg "Take off from Mars by Pat Rawlings")
.jpg "Spaceship in Mars orbit by Tim Flattery")