Ganymede, the breadbasket of the Belt, in "The Expanse" TV series

Ganymede is one of the "Galilean moons" of Jupiter and the largest moon in the Solar System. It's only slightly smaller than Mars, but with only half the density, its gravity is actually weaker than the Moon's. Ganymede is the only moon with any magnetosphere thus having the ability to deflect charged ionizing radiation. In the universe of The Expanse TV series (a political sci-fi drama set in mid-24th century when humans have colonized the entire Solar system) Ganymede acts as the breadbasket of the Belt - one of the three competing powers in The Expanse, along with the United Nations (based on Earth) and Mars.

In the universe of The Expanse Ganymede has millions of residents and Ganymede Station was one of the first permanent human settlements in the outer planets, built as a long term colony with large domes filled with food crops. Large mirrors were placed around the moon to supply the Sun's light to the surface for crop growth. It was known as the safest station in the Jovian system, and many humans from other colonies traveled to Ganymede to deliver their babies, as the magnetosphere helps claim the Jovian moon the lowest amount of birth defects and stillbirths. Initially, at the start of the series, Ganymede is divided between the United Nations and Mars.

The life on Ganymede is depicted in season 2 of The Expanse. Here you can view some of the best shots from Ganymede (downscaled from 4K UHD screens for better image quality) as well as some concept art for it.

Inside an agricultural dome on Ganymede:

Magnetosphere protects Ganymede from Jupiter's harsh radiation belt:

A ship landing at a human colony on Ganymede:

Concept art for a Ganymede greenhouse by Romain Jouandeau:

Tesla Cybertruck - a pickup truck made for Mars

4 years after the initial unveiling, today is the day when the long-anticipated Tesla Cybertrucks will be delivered to the first customers. Cybertruck is an electric pickup truck with a radically different design and features that no other automaker has ever attempted. Tesla's stainless steel pickup truck doesn't even look like it's made for Earth. Indeed, on several occasions, Elon Musk has stated that a "pressurized edition" of Cybertruck will be the "official truck of Mars".

Illustration of Tesla Cybertruck on Mars by Canadian graphic designer Andres Gonzalez

Of course, the Cybertruck will need to be heavily modified to be useful in Martian conditions (the pressure difference is just one of the problems that will need to be solved), but we can easily imagine a truck with Cybertruck's design features driving around on Mars in not so distant future. We can even imagine a Tesla factory producing those Martian Cybertrucks on Mars itself as early as the 2050s.

Cybertruck Delivery Event will be livestreamed on Tesla's website at 2:00 pm CT.

Spaceport on Mars - Part 3 of Martian sketches by Andrey Maximov

Environment concept artist Andrey Maximov from Armenia has created an impressive set of artworks called Martian sketches depicting a "routine" journey to Mars in 2089. So far he has published 25 pages of those sketches. As the artist describes them: "this series is kind of like the road sketches of a member of an expedition to Mars. It's a routine flight in the not-too-distant future. The planet is more or less inhabited. We have an orbital station around Mars. There are already several settlements on the surface, mining is going on."

1st part (10 sketches) of Andrey's Martian sketches depicted the expedition leaving Earth;
2nd part (5 sketches) depicted expedition's arrival to International Mars Orbital Station

Here is 3rd part (6 sketches) depicting spaceport "Anteros" on Mars:

SpaceX Starship orbital flight test 2 - infographic by Tony Bela (updated)

Australian space illustrator Tony Bela has created an infographic of the upcoming 2nd integrated flight test of SpaceX's Starship rocket (booster B09, ship S25) on Saturday, November 18 Friday, November 17 (a 20 minute launch window opens at 7:00 a.m. CT pending final regulatory approval) from Starbase, Boca Chica, Texas.

SpaceX: "Starship’s first flight test [on April 20] provided numerous lessons learned that directly contributed to several upgrades to both the vehicle and ground infrastructure to improve the probability of success on future flights. The second flight test will debut a hot-stage separation system and a new electronic Thrust Vector Control (TVC) system for Super Heavy Raptor engines, in addition to reinforcements to the pad foundation and a water-cooled steel flame deflector, among many other enhancements."

Breakdown of Tony's infographic into phases:

Building a new civilization on Mars in "For All Mankind" season 4

Yesterday Apple TV+ released yet another video revealing more details about the upcoming season 4 of For All Mankind alternate history sci-fi TV series. As the co-creator of the series Ben Nedivi states in this featurette: "This season is really about the building of a new civilization on Mars. Last year in season 3 you saw the first explorers arrive on Mars. This season you're actually seeing hundreds of people up there and you're seeing, how civilization becomes civilization".

Judging from the reviews by journalists who were given early access to the first 7 episodes of season 4, this season might be the show's most exciting season yet. We look forward to judging it for ourselves. Season 4 premieres November 10 on Apple TV+, with episodes releasing weekly.



Some of the details for season 4 were previously revealed in a teaser and a trailer.

For All Mankind is exploring the idea of never ending space race if Soviets would have beaten US in the race for the Moon and the intention of the show is each season to jump about a decade further into the increasingly diverging reality of the show: in season 1, depicting alternate 1969 to 1974, both Soviets and US start building their separate bases near the lunar South pole; in season 2 (1983) both bases have been expanded and the superpowers compete for resources on the Lunar surface; in season 3 (1992 to 1995), Soviets and US are joined by a private company Helios and North Korea for a four way race to establish the first human base on Mars.

Here are some HD images from the featurette above.

Happy Valley base on Mars:

Ceres, the capital of the Belt, in "The Expanse" TV series

Ceres, located in the Main Asteroid Belt between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter, is the largest known asteroid (~940km in diameter) and the only dwarf planet in the Inner Solar system. In the universe of The Expanse TV series (a political sci-fi drama set in mid-24th century when humans have colonized the entire Solar system) Ceres acts as the de facto capital for the Belt - one of the three competing powers in The Expanse, along with the United Nations (based on Earth) and Mars.

Ceres naturally has a gravity of 0.029g (2,9% of the gravity force on Earth), but in the universe of The Expanse it has been artificially spun up to 0.3g of centrifugal force (so the "gravity" points in the opposite direction, not towards the center of the planet). There is a population of around 6 million in Ceres Station which consists of tens of thousands of kilometers of tunnels bored deep into Ceres. Ceres Station is the most important spaceport in the Belt, 800 to 1'000 ships are docked on Ceres every day, so along with the 6 million permanent residents there are an extra one million transiting through at any given time. Ceres Station was initially governed by the United Nations, but during season 1 of the show Outer Planets Alliance (OPA, a fractured sociopolitical movement trying to unite the Belt) takes control.

The life on Ceres is depicted in season 1 and season 6 of The Expanse. Here you can view some of the best shots from locations on Ceres Station (part of them downscaled from 4K UHD screens for better image quality) as well as some concept art for Ceres:

Mid-town Ceres Station:

Ceres Station docks on the surface of Ceres:

Administrative Plaza of Ceres:

Concept art for The Medina level on Ceres by North Front Studio:

International Mars Orbital Station - Part 2 of Martian sketches by Andrey Maximov

Environment concept artist Andrey Maximov from Armenia has created an impressive set of artworks called Martian sketches depicting a "routine" journey to Mars in 2089. So far he has published 25 pages of those sketches. As the artist describes them: "this series is kind of like the road sketches of a member of an expedition to Mars. It's a routine flight in the not-too-distant future. The planet is more or less inhabited. We have an orbital station around Mars. There are already several settlements on the surface, mining is going on."

1st part (10 sketches) of Andrey's Martian sketches depicted the expedition leaving Earth.

Here is 2nd part (5 sketches) depicting expedition's arrival to International Mars Orbital Station:

Asteroid mining will play a major role in "For All Mankind" season 4

Yesterday Apple TV+ published a yet unlisted trailer for season 4 of For All Mankind alternate history sci-fi TV series, revealing asteroid mining will play a major role in season 4, set in 2003. The trailer also revealed more details about the soon-to-be "self-sustaining" international Happy Valley base on Mars, first depicted in the first teaser for season 4 a month ago.

For All Mankind is exploring the idea of never ending space race if Soviets would have beaten US in the race for the Moon and the intention of the show is each season to jump about a decade further into the increasingly diverging reality of the show: in season 1, depicting alternate 1969 to 1974, both Soviets and US start building their separate bases near the lunar South pole; in season 2 (1983) both bases have been expanded and the superpowers compete for resources on the Lunar surface; in season 3 (1992 to 1995), Soviets and US are joined by a private company Helios and North Korea for a four way race to establish the first human base on Mars. Season 4 will start airing on November 10 on Apple TV+ and will depict the alternate 2003.

Here you can watch the trailer and see some HD images from it:

Happy Valley base on Mars:

Colonized Mars - Martian city lights from space

How would a colonized Mars appear from space? Here is a FHD wallpaper with lights of two large cities on Mars as they would be seen from space; created by an uncredited artist for the Mars City Design platform:

Farewell Earth! - Part 1 of Martian sketches by Andrey Maximov

Environment concept artist Andrey Maximov from Armenia has created an impressive set of artworks called Martian sketches depicting a "routine" journey to Mars in 2089. So far he has published 25 pages of those sketches. As the artist describes them: "this series is kind of like the road sketches of a member of an expedition to Mars. It's a routine flight in the not-too-distant future. The planet is more or less inhabited. We have an orbital station around Mars. There are already several settlements on the surface, mining is going on."

Here are the first 10 of Andrey's Martian sketches depicting the expedition leaving Earth.

GAIA Spaceport on Earth:

SpaceX Starship orbiting terraformed Mars by Erik Corshammar

Picture of the Day 22/09/2023 - SpaceX Starship orbiting partially terraformed Mars by Swedish space designer Erik Corshammar (Erc X). More of his art here.

"For All Mankind" season 4 reveals a sprawling first human base on Mars

On September 13 Apple TV+ released the first teaser for season 4 of For All Mankind alternate history sci-fi TV series. The teaser is made in the form of a recruitment ad for Helios Aerospace and reveals in season 4 of the show the company acts as a private operator and transport provider for the international Happy Valley base on Mars. Quite a resemblance to SpaceX in our reality 😉

For All Mankind is exploring the idea of never ending space race if Soviets would have beaten US in the race for the Moon and the intention of the show is each season to jump about a decade further into the increasingly diverging reality of the show: in season 1, depicting alternate 1969 to 1974, both Soviets and US start building their separate bases near the lunar South pole; in season 2 (1983) both bases have been expanded and the superpowers compete for resources on the Lunar surface; in season 3 (1992 to 1995), Soviets and US are joined by a private company Helios and North Korea for a four way race to establish the first human base on Mars. Season 4 will start airing on November 10 on Apple TV+ and will depict the alternate 2003 or so.

Here you can watch the teaser and see some HD images from it:

Helios recruitment posters:

Happy Valley Base overview:

Industrial complex on Mars by Antarik Fox

Picture of the Day 03/09/2023 - AI generated image by Antarik Fox of an industrial complex on Mars.

The leader of the colony addressing settlers on Mars

The leader of the colony gives a speech to a crowd of Martian settlers inside a domed meeting hall of a human colony on Mars – game art from Terraformers – Mars colonization turn based strategy game released on March 2023 and developed by indie game developer Asteroid Lab.

Spaceship launch from Mars colony by Jort van Welbergen

Picture of the Day 13/08/2023 - Spaceship launch from a human colony on Mars by Dutch freelance movie and game concept designer Jort van Welbergen. More of his art here.

Closeup of the colony:

'The World of Tomorrow' (1980) book cover

In his popular science book "The World of Tomorrow", first published in 1980, Robin Kerrod depicted life as it might look in the 21st century. Today, living in the third decade of the 21st century, this depiction might seem overly technologically optimistic (like most past attempts to depict the future), but the book contains many illustrations that positively inspired a whole generation of children. Here, for example, book's cover illustration shows a spacecraft that has landed on Phobos, near a human base:

Jamestown US Moon base in "For All Mankind" season 3

Unlike the first two seasons, which focused on the Moon, season 3 of For All Mankind (an alternate history sci-fi TV series) focuses on Mars. But despite the Jamestown US Moon base being featured only briefly in the season, we can see it has been expanded significantly during the alternate history decade between season 2 (depicting 1983) and season 3 (depicting 1992 to 1995), completing the 1st ring of modules and adding a 2nd ring. So, in this alternate reality of the show development on the Moon has not been neglected because of the Mars mission.

NASA's Sojourner at Jamestown preparing for the mission to Mars:

SpaceX Starship landing at Mars Base Alpha by Mark Garlick

British illustrator Mark Garlick has created a set of renders depicting SpaceX's Starship landing at a spaceport near Mars Base Alpha. The spaceport is equipped with a shorter version of SpaceX's launch integration tower for catching and launching only the second stage of Starship rocket, since Mars's comparably lower gravity doesn't require Starship's booster stage to reach orbit.

Mars. Welcome to paradise

Family walking around a human outpost on Mars in a vintage style poster "Mars. Welcome to paradise" by British freelance illustrator Mark Bell.

Spherical underground Mars colony by Michel Lamontagne

One of the weak spots for any domed human colony on Mars would be the enormous pressure difference needed between the higher interior pressure suitable for humans (~ 1 bar) and the near-vacuum exterior pressure of the Martian atmosphere (0.004-0.011 bar). The dome for such a structure should have heavy anchoring deep underground. But there is a much simpler solution - a spherical hermetic structure mostly underground where only the tip of the sphere (visible as a dome) is located above the ground level. Sphere is the strongest geometric shape for containing internal pressure and the structure can be kept in place by the mass put inside the sphere.

Canadian design engineer Michel Lamontagne has created two concept drawings for such a colony where there is only a domed park above the ground level and all the rest of the colony is located below the ground level with a vertical central opening for natural lighting:

The geodesic surface dome is subdivided into small panes for easier replacement and safety:

Valles Marineris compared to USA

Valles Marineris (or Mariner Valleys) canyon system on Mars is one of the largest canyons of the Solar System. It is located along the equator of Mars and stretches for nearly a quarter of the planet's circumference. Valles Marineris is more than 4000 km (2500 mi) long, 200 km (120 mi) wide and up to 7 km (23,000 ft) deep.

Here is an infographic created by NASA comparing Valles Marineris to the territory of Contiguous United States (48 US states without Alaska and Hawaii) for scale:

Cargo spaceship orbiting Mars by Graham Gazzard

Picture of the Day 10/06/2023 - Cargo spaceship orbiting Mars by British sci-fi and aviation artist Graham Gazzard (known also as GrahamTG).

SpaceX Starship orbital flight test 1 - infographic by Tony Bela

Australian space illustrator Tony Bela has created an infographic of the upcoming first integrated flight test of SpaceX's Starship rocket next week from Starbase, Boca Chica, Texas. We have been waiting for this test flight for a year and a half by now!

Updated version. You can download the infographic in full resolution here.