New Shanghai 2117 vertical forest skyscraper eco-city on Mars by Stefano Boeri

Italian architect Stefano Boeri has created an interesting vision for a colony of Shanghai on the Red Planet in 2117 - a vertical forest skyscraper eco-city called "New Shanghai". The vision is exhibited at Shanghai Urban Space and Art Season 2017, opened on October 15th in Minsheng Port in Shanghai.

SpaceX spaceships near the Mars City

Picture of the Day 29/9/2017 - Several SpaceX spaceships near the Mars City. Official design by SpaceX.

(Click on image to view in 4K resolution)

Updated with the 4K quality image on 19th October, 2017.

House on Mars by Nacho Malter

Picture of the Day 28/7/2017 - drawing of a cottage house on partly terraformed Mars by Argentinian freelance artist Nacho Malter. More of his art here.

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New life on Mars by Robert Murray

Picture of the Day 15/7/2017 - a happy family at the human colony on Mars by Robert Murray / The Mars Society (2001).

"Making Humans a Multiplanetary Species" by Anastasiya Prosochkina & Aleksey Mazur

Picture of the Day 13/5/2017 - SpaceX's Interplanetary Transport System will enable Mars as the other home for humanity, a painting by Russian sci-fi artists Anastasiya Prosochkina & Aleksey Mazur.

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Mars colony from The Space Between Us movie

Picture of the Day 1/4/2017 - East Texas colony on Mars from "The Space Between Us" movie.

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HD images from The Space Between Us (2017) movie

The Space Between Us (2017) is the latest movie set on Mars. It's not widely hyped but actually really good. The movie is about the first child born on Mars - a teenage boy secretly risen up by scientists after his mother died in child-birth. He travels to Earth to find his father and the girl he is secretly video-chatting to, but is too weak to stay there.

Here are some HD 720p quality images from the Martian part of the movie (click to view in full resolution):

HD images of NASA's base on Mars, 2117, a vision by Blackbird Interactive

In collaboration with NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a Canadian game developer Blackbird Interactive is building NASA's vision of what a Mars base would look like 100 years from now. The "Project Eagle" base is set near the Mount Sharp at Gale crater and the interactive vision was presented at DICE 2017 game developer summit on 22nd of February.

Here are HD 1152p quality images from the project (open link in new tab to view in full resolution):

Here are HD 1080p screenshots from the demonstration videos (open link in new tab to view in full resolution):

Garden under the dome on Mars by Pawel Wegiel

Picture of the Day 17/12/2016 - a garden under the dome on Mars by Polish 3D graphic artist Pawel Wegiel. More of his art here.

Domed atrium at Mars base by Bryan Versteeg

One of the most talented modern space artists Bryan Versteeg has created a few concept images of a domed atrium at Mars base for Mars One project. More of his space art here.

SpaceX spaceship at Mars base by Bryan Versteeg

Picture of the Day 29/9/16. It was inevitable Elon Musk's presentation of SpaceX Interplanetary Transport System will inspire a lot of fan art based around the design of the Mars Vehicle (could we call the "ship" part of Interplanetary Transport System by the old name - Mars Colonial Transporter?). One of the first is made by talented modern space artist Bryan Versteeg - a Mars base built around a landed SpaceX Mars Colonial Transporter.

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Martian colony by Christian Hecker

Picture of the Day 18/8/16 - "Red Sands" Martian colony by Christian Hecker. More of his sci-fi art here. Click for full resolution:

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Mars base by Manchu

Picture of the Day 3/2/16 - Mars base with dome over a chasm near Ascraeus Mons by French sci-fi artist Manchu (Philippe Bouchet).

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Mars hotel by Bob Eggleton

Picture of the Day 11/10/2015 - "Mars hotel" by fantasy and sci-fi artist Bob Eggleton.

Mars colony by Robert McCall

Picture of the Day 12/2/15 - "Mars metropolis" (1999) by legendary space artist Robert McCall. More of his space art here.

Red Mars, Green Mars and Blue Mars by CarlosNCT

A set of artwork by Spanish digital artist CarlosNCT inspired from three phases of terraformation of Mars in Kim Stanley Robinson's Mars trilogy. Click to view in full resolution:

Phase 1. - Red Mars:

Mars colony by Don Dixon

Picture of the Day 31/1/15 - Astronauts set up a relay antenna near a Mars colony by Don Dixon, 2005. More of his space art here.

Mars colonies in Babylon 5

Babylon 5 (1994-1998) is far from being my favorite sci-fi TV series (to be exact - I have watched only one episode: s04e10 "Racing Mars"), but it is one of very few TV series / movies depicting human colonies on Mars in some of its episodes (Mars is only a minor stage for story of the series). In Babylon 5 universe the rapid colonization and terraforming 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 control with an aim for Mars independence. You can read about Mars in Babylon 5 universe here. Click to view in full resolution:

Martian base concept by Janek Kozicki & Joanna Kozicka

Polish engineers/architects Janek Kozicki & Joanna Kozicka has long been working for an architectural design proposal for a Martian base after NASA (or SpaceX) will land humans on Mars for the 1st time. They call it a stage 2 and stage 3 Martian bases (stage 1 - 1st landing base; stage 2 - a small permanent Martian base; stage 3 - small Martian settlement; stage 4 - Martian cities).

Stage 2 Martian base by Janek Kozicki [PDF of the concept here]

Mars base by Bryan Versteeg

Bryan Versteeg is one of the best conceptual design artists for space exploration nowadays. Today I have picked one of his concept art pictures for Mars habitat as my "Picture of the Day" for Mars colonization.