SpaceX Starship in high Lunar orbit by William Falconer-Beach

Picture of the Day 24/7/2019 - SpaceX's Starship in high Lunar orbit by William Falconer-Beach. More of his Starship renders here.

SpaceX #dearMoon Starship orbiting the Moon

Official renders of SpaceX #dearMoon Starship orbiting the Moon from #dearMoon Instagram profile.

Artist flying in zero-G inside the Starship:

60 year challenge for humanity: 1969 - Moon, 2029 - Mars

Today 50 years ago first humans - 2 out of 3 Apollo 11 crew members Neil Armstrong & Buzz Aldrin - landed on the Moon. But since then the advancement of human space exploration has been slow. It changed only in recent years with the rise of private space companies, especially SpaceX with its determined focus on rocket reusability and colonization of Mars. Now we have a real chance to land first humans on Mars as soon as 10 years from now, maybe even sooner.

HD quality official renders of SpaceX Starship at Mars Base Alpha and on the Moon

In April Elon Musk on his Twitter profile teased two new renders with SpaceX's Starship on the Moon and at Mars Base Alpha. Unfortunately those were low resolution images. Now we have a HD resolution versions (press Open link in new tab to view) of those renders from SpaceX's Principal Mars Development Engineer Paul Wooster's presentation at Humans to Mars summit 2019 organized by Explore Mars.

Nazi Moon base by Darren Tan

Singaporean freelance illustrator Darren Tan visualizing the conspiracy theory of a secret Nazi base on the far side of the Moon.

This alternate history science fiction myth was somewhat started by Rocket Ship Galileo, a 1947 young adult novel by Robert Heinlein, which features three teenagers who travel to the Moon and discover a secret Nazi base. Since then the "secret Nazi Moon base" cultural myth has been used in fiction frequently, including The Man in the High Castle novel (1962) by Philip K. Dick (and its recent TV series adaptation), Iron Sky movie (2012) and Wolfenstein: The New Order video game (2014). We should remember that Von Braun's V-2 rocket was the first man made object reaching outer space in June, 1944, and it was the base for both US and Soviet space programs. So the myth had some logical grounds.

New official renders of SpaceX Starship on the Moon & at Mars Base Alpha

Today Elon Musk revealed on his Twitter two more renders of SpaceX's Starship on the Moon and at Mars Base Alpha:

New official renders of Lockheed Martin's Lunar lander

American aerospace, advanced technologies and defense company Lockheed Martin has published two new renders of its Lunar lander. The lander seems to be scaled down a little if compared to the concept published last year. The purpose of the two-stage lander would be to ship 4 astronauts from NASA's planned Lunar Orbital Platform-Gateway to the surface of the Moon and back. The ascent stage is derived from the Orion spacecraft to ensure quicker development of the lander for an accelerated human return to the Moon as early as 2024 (according to the new aspirational timeline of NASA's leadership).

On 2017 Lockheed Martin also proposed its concept for a 4-person Martian lander.

Ascent stage docked to the "Early Gateway" in Lunar orbit:

JAXA lunar rover by Toyota for missions starting in 2029

On March 12 Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) and Toyota announced they will jointly develop a manned, pressurized lunar rover that uses fuel cell electric vehicle technologies for JAXA's planned manned missions to explore five different locations near the Moon's southern pole between 2029 and 2034. The lunar rover would have a room for two astronauts on a missions up to 42 days and a total lunar-surface cruising range of more than 10'000 kilometers.

Here are concept images and animation for the rover:

Animation of the deployment of the rover:

Lockheed Martin's Lunar lander concept

American aerospace, advanced technologies and defense company Lockheed Martin has proposed a 62-ton Lunar lander to bring 4 astronauts from NASA's planned Lunar Orbital Platform-Gateway in near-rectilinear halo orbit to the surface of the Moon. The lander would be capable to support those astronauts on the surface for up to 14 days.

A year ago Lockheed Martin also proposed its concept for a 4-person Martian lander.

(Open link in new tab to view images in full resolution)

Unloading cargo from SpaceX BFR spaceship on the Moon

Picture of the Day 22/4/2018 - Unloading cargo from SpaceX BFR spaceship (BFS) on the Moon; fan vision by Reddit user brickmack (Mack Crawford).

(Open link in new tab to view ⇩ in full resolution)

Video animation: SpaceX BFR spaceship landing on the Moon

Fan-made video animation of SpaceX BFR spaceship (BFS) landing on the Moon; created by Reddit user Hazegrayart.