Tuesday, November 5, 2019

Mars colony for 1000 people by Innspace team (Mars Colony Prize contest)

This year The Mars Society held Mars Colony Prize - a contest for "the best plan for a Mars colony of 1000 people. The colony should be self-supporting to the maximum extent possible - i.e. relying on a minimum mass of imports from Earth. The goal is to have the colony be able to produce all the food, clothing, shelter, power, common consumer products, vehicles, and machines for 1000 people, with only the minimum number of key components, such as advanced electronics needing to be imported from Earth." According to speculations laid out in our Mars Colonization Timeline the first human base on Mars could reach a thousand inhabitants by late 2040s.

The winners of the contest were chosen at the International Mars Society convention in Los Angeles, California in October 2019. Here are images of the Ideacity concept by InnSpace team from Poland which got the 5th place:

Mars colony for 1000 people by Innspace team for Mars Colony Prize contest
Central cluster of the colony:
Mars colony for 1000 people by Innspace team for Mars Colony Prize contest - city center

Sunday, November 3, 2019

Monday, October 28, 2019

SpaceX Starship Super Heavy launch animation by HazeGrayArt

Video animation of SpaceX's Starship Super Heavy launch by HazeGrayArt who is known for his superb animations of both real and paper rockets, spacecraft and aircraft on his YouTube channel. He has also made animations of the previous iterations of Starship: Tintin-style BFR v2018 and delta-winged BFR v2017 landing on Mars.

Sunday, October 27, 2019

Orcus Patera base on Mars from Orbiter space flight simulator

Orbiter is a free-to-play space flight simulator developed by a single man Martin Schweiger since 2000 (the last major update was on 2016) and using realistic physics. Originally it's a very bare-bones program, but has a lot of fan-made addons which make the simulator much more enjoyable. One of those addons is Orcus Patera - a fictional human base/spaceport located in Orcus Patera depression on Mars; the addon is developed by Well and DanSteph.

Here are some images of the base modified in New Rome addon (which uses more recent Mars HRSC high-res texture pack and places the base in Valles Marineris):

Shuttle over Orcus Patera base on Mars from Orbiter space flight simulator

Orbiter 2016 space flight simulator

Orcus Patera base on Mars from Orbiter space flight simulator

Thursday, October 24, 2019

SpaceX Mars Base Alpha in late 2030s

A few hours ago SpaceX posted on their Flickr account 4K resolution versions of the previously released renders with the new design of Starship. Here is a closeup (open image link in new tab for best resolution) from one of them with Starship launching from Mars Base Alpha. According to our speculated Mars Colonization Timeline the first human base on Mars could be developed to the pictured level by late 2030s.

SpaceX Starship launching from Mars Base Alpha

Friday, October 18, 2019

Walking around China's C-Space Mars simulation base in Gobi desert

Walking around China's C-Space Mars simulation base in Gobi desert - photos and a video by Slovenian photographer Matjaž Tančič. A private company C-Space opened this base on April, 2019 in the Gobi Desert 40km from Jinchang, northwest Gansu Province. Its aim is to educate and provide an environment for youths and tourists to experience life on Mars.

Walking around China's C-Space Mars simulation base in Gobi desert - photo by Matjaž Tančič

Walking around China's C-Space Mars simulation base in Gobi desert - photo by Matjaž Tančič

Monday, October 14, 2019

Colonized Valles Marineris region on Mars from season 4 teaser of The Expanse

There are two short scenes on Mars in the latest season 4 teaser for The Expanse TV series - a political sci-fi detective set a few centuries in the future where humans have colonized the entire Solar system; Mars is one of three competing forces in the universe of The Expanse. There were three more scenes on Mars in the first teaser for season 4.
Human colonies in Valles Marineris region (horizontally flipped in the trailer for some unknown reason) on Mars:
Human colonies in Valles Marineris region on Mars from season 4 teaser of The Expanse
Earth's leader Avasarala attending a diplomatic banquet on Mars:
Earth's leader Avasarala attending a diplomatic banquet on Mars from season 4 teaser of The Expanse

HD images of Mars from season 2 of The Expanse TV series here


Sunday, October 13, 2019

Incredible miniatures for Total Recall (1990) Martian landscapes

One of the best movies set on Mars ever made - Total Recall (1990), stared by Arnold Schwarzenegger, Rachel Ticotin and Sharon Stone and directed by Paul Verhoeven (known also for Starship Troopers, RoboCop, Basic Instinct and other movies), was the last major movie to heavily utilize miniature effects before computer graphics took that job. Vast and incredibly detailed miniature Martian landscapes were built for the movie. Unfortunately most of the miniatures were destroyed after the filming was done. Here are some rare photos from the production process of the miniature Martian landscapes before their destruction.

Mars colony:

Miniatures for Total Recall Martian landscapes
⇩ in movie ⇩
View of Mars colony from Cohaagen's office in Total Recall 1990 movie

The spaceport:

Making miniatures for Total Recall Martian landscapes

Friday, October 11, 2019