Lone astronaut on Mars by Alberto Vangelista

Picture of the Day 28/1/15 - A lone explorer on Mars by Italian digital artist Alberto Vangelista. More of his art here.

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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:

Mars terraforming plant by National Geographic Channel

Picture of the Day 23/1/15 - A Mars terraforming plant from documentary "Mars: Making the New Earth" (2009) by National Geographic Channel. You can watch the full documentary here.

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The Mars Underground, updated edition

The Mars Underground is a documentary about the dream to get to Mars.. about the disappointment of "space era" kids/youth for NASA not going further after the human landing on Moon on 1969. One of such kids was visionary rocket scientist, the president of The Mars Society Robert Zubrin who with his team has developed his own plan for getting humans to Mars and back - Mars Direct (with updated mission architecture called "Mars Semi-Direct"). They are confident the mission could be carried out in a decade if only NASA would dare to try. It would be the first step for colonizing Mars and thereby making humanity a multi-planet civilization.

As the documentary was released in May, 2007 it doesn't cover the more recent plans for Mars colonization/exploration by SpaceX.

You can watch the most recent version (labeled as "Updated edition/Director's cut") of the film here:

Mars base by Alfie Rodriguez

Picture of the Day 8/1/15 - "Space Comand Base Station" on Mars by Mexican 3D artist Alfie Rodriguez.

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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 trucks by Bryan Versteeg

Picture of the Day 3/1/15 - Mars exploration vehicles by Bryan Versteeg. More of his space concept art here.

Mars quotes

Mars is the only known planet inhabited solely by robots.

/ Space Exploration (FB page)

Hope that fact will change soon!

Wanderers - a vision of our expansion into the Solar System

"Wanderers" is a short film by Erik Wernquist depicting "a vision of humanity's expansion into the Solar System, based on scientific ideas and concepts of what our future in space might look like, if it ever happens. The locations depicted in the film are digital recreations of actual places in the Solar System, built from real photos and map data where available." In background of the stunning visuals you can hear the words and voice of Carl Sagan - the famous inspirator of space colonization.

All the scenes seen in film are explained here.

Mars base - Acheron labs - concept by William Bennett

The Acheron labs (a reference to one of the bases from Kim Stanley Robinson's Mars trilogy) concept by William Bennett. More of his concept art here. Click to view in full resolution: