Martian colonies in season 4 of The Expanse

Although Mars is one of the three competing powers in universe of The Expanse TV series (a political sci-fi detective set a few centuries in the future where humans have colonized the entire Solar system) only a few scenes were actually set on Mars in first three seasons of the series. That changes in season 4 where the life on Mars at last gets proper depiction.

In The Expanse Mars, governed by Martian Congressional Republic, is a militaristic and technologically advanced society of over nine billion inhabitants. It is the major competitor of Earth & Luna, governed by United Nations. Earth, dragged down by overpopulation and climate change, envies Mars because of its society's high mobilization towards the shared goal of terraforming Mars. But in season 4 that shared goal and order of the Martian society is starting to erode as the new habitable planets beyond the rings are discovered (without the costly need of being terraformed as Mars does). As the interplanetary military tension is over veterans find themselves needless in the peace time society; crime and corruption is rising, and some even manage to sell older military tech to Belter pirate gangs.

Here is a collection with HD images from the Martian scenes in season 4 of The Expanse (open link in new tab to view in full resolution):

Exterior and interior of a shipyard for Martian fleet:

Martian school kids training for exam:

Astronauts returning to Mars colony by Ferdinand Ladera

Picture of the Day 13/12/2019 - exploration team returning to human colony on Mars by Filipino fantasy artist Ferdinand Ladera; illustration for The Expanse role-playing board game.

Mars in Ad Astra (2019) movie

Ad Astra is a recent (September 2019) science fiction thriller set in mid-21st century when humanity has started to settle the inner Solar System. A son (Brad Pitt) is sent on a mission to uncover the truth about his father's (Tommy Lee Jones) long lost mission near Neptune which now threatens the survival of Earth. In his lonesome and dangerous mission he visits several places including a dynamic but wild human colony on the Moon and a desolate relay station on Mars. Here are some HD images from the Martian scenes in the movie.

A pair of Tesla Cybertrucks guarding SpaceX Starship launch by ATOM

A pair of Tesla Cybertrucks guarding SpaceX Starship launch by French YouTuber and visual effects artist ATOM (Eric Tualle). More of his art here.

Poster of Tesla Cybertruck at Schiaparelli Crater on Mars

Poster of Tesla Cybertruck, pressurized edition, near a human base at Schiaparelli Crater on Mars by American video game concept artist Darren Bacon. More of his art here. Note a SpaceX cargo Starship (the 3-legged Tin Tin edition) on launch pad at the base.

Starman resting at his Tesla Cybertruck on Mars by Eashan Misra

SpaceX's Starman resting at his Tesla Cybertruck on Mars by Indian space artist Eashan Misra. More of his art here. According to Elon Musk, the CEO of both Tesla and SpaceX, the pressurized edition of Cybertruck will be capable to drive on Mars.

Tesla Cybertruck on Mars

The pressurized edition of Tesla Cybertruck, unveiled yesterday by Elon Musk, will be capable operating on Mars. Reddit user u/redditbsbsbs has made an image:

HD quality official render of SpaceX cargo Starship unloading on the Moon

3 weeks ago SpaceX's Principal Mars Development Engineer Paul Wooster gave a presentation "SpaceX's Plans for Sending Humans to Mars" at 22nd Annual Mars Society Convention. In the presentation there was a new render of the redesigned SpaceX's cargo Starship unloading some NASA rovers on Lunar surface. Unfortunately no one was able to capture a decent quality image of the render then. Yesterday the render was posted on NASA's web page in high quality:

The post reveals that SpaceX is one of companies taking part in NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) initiative which "allows rapid acquisition of lunar delivery services for payloads that advance capabilities for science, exploration, or commercial development of the Moon. Investigations and demonstrations launched on commercial Moon flights will help the agency study Earth’s nearest neighbor under the Artemis program. As its next step in exploration, NASA is preparing to send the first woman and next man to the Moon by 2024, establish sustainable lunar exploration by 2028, and plans to send astronauts to Mars in the mid-2030s."

Underground Mars colony for 1000 people by InnSpace

A weak ago we posted a concept of Mars colony for 1000 people created by InnSpace team from Poland for Mars Colony Prize contest (held by The Mars Society). In some of the responses there was a critique stressing out the colony should be built underground for better radiation protection. Since then the authors of the concept sent us some additional renderings from which we can conclude it's actually the case - the concept includes most of the buildings being built underground (with only the transparent rooftops sticking out from regolith cover for natural lighting) and interconnected via underground passages.

A hyperloop line entering the colony:

SpaceX Starship interior concept for 100 passengers

NASASpaceFlight.com forum members Ace (Rick Kiessig from New Zealand) and lamontagne (Canadian design engineer Michel Lamontagne) have created a concept for the interior layout of SpaceX's 100-passenger Starship (the passenger capacity goal stated by Elon Musk). Therefore this concept isn't meant for the first crew Starships on Mars used as temporary habitats for the first few years. For those first Starships Michel Lamontagne has created a separate concept.

The design divides the living space into 7 decks, labeled A to G, from the bottom-up. There are two openings between decks, offset slightly from one deck to the next, to reduce the risk of accidents related to trying to "fly" through multiple decks while in zero-G. There are removable rails around the openings, to prevent accidental falls while on Earth or Mars. All decks have a 2.2m high living space, except Deck G, which is 2.16m high. The blue bars in some areas are examples of hand and foot holds, like they use on International Space Station (ISS).

The floors are shown with hexagonal tiles, to indicate a system that will allow wall partitions and other items to be attached or removed to meet the tastes and needs of passengers.

Deck A has the gym, an external airlock, some storage space, and a couple of toilets:

• ISS found a need for 2+ hours of exercise per day to avoid bone and muscle loss. Multiplied by 100 people, that requires 10 exercise machines. Note that several of them are mounted on the walls.
• Making full use of walls and ceilings for living space is a theme of this design, since there's no "down" in zero-G.
• The airlock allows access to the outside of the ship during flight, in case of a need to make inspections or minor repairs, and to support landing in places without pre-existing ground infrastructure.