Astronaut working on Mars by unknown artist

Picture of the Day 10/4/14 - Can anyone point me out the author of this Mars artwork? Leave in comments...

Mars base by Georgi Petrov

Picture of the Day 8/4/14 - A Mars base by architect Georgi Petrov.

Astronauts exploring Valles Marineris by Sean Brady

Picture of the Day 7/4/14 - Exploration of Valles Marineris (2009) by Sean Brady from United Kingdom.

Mars colony by Pete Ashford

Picture of the Day 6/4/14 - A drawing "Welcome to Mars" (2010) by Pete Ashford from United Kingdom.

Terraforming Mars by Dane Spangler

Three phases for terraforming Mars by Dane Spangler's illustrations. Note the time needed (changing technologic level in illustrations) for complete terraformation of Mars. Click to view in full resolution:

Phase 1. - Red Mars:

Astronauts exploring Valles Marineris by Tiago da Silva

Picture of the Day 4/4/14 - "Valles Marineris" by Portuguese fantasy artist Tiago da Silva (Grafik). More of his work (no more Mars though) at grafik.deviantart.com

(Open link in new tab to view ⇩ in HD wallpaper resolution)

Mars colony by Manchu

Picture of the Day 3/4/14 - A Mars colony by French sci-fi artist Manchu (Philippe Bouchet).

Astronauts exploring Noctis Labyrinthus by Pat Rawlings

Picture of the Day 2/4/14 - A classic work "in Noctis Labyrinthus" (1989) for NASA by Pat Rawlings.

Maybe it's You there climbing? ;)

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

ISECG strategy for long-range human space exploration

The International Space Exploration Coordination Group (ISECG) is a forum of 14 most advanced government space agencies - ASI (Italy), CNES (France), CNSA (China), CSA (Canada), CSIRO (Australia), DLR (Germany), ESA (European Space Agency), ISRO (India), JAXA (Japan), KARI (Republic of Korea), NASA (United States of America), NSAU (Ukraine), Roscosmos (Russia), UKSA (United Kingdom). Its main goal is to advance a long-range human space exploration strategy.

On August, 2013 12 ISECG member agencies (including NASA) released the most recent update to the Global Exploration Roadmap. The summary can be seen in this infographic:

On April 10-11, 2014 NASA plans to host a workshop to discuss the updates to this roadmap.

Hope, the private pioneers like SpaceX, Mars One and others will speed up those plans a bit!

Mars base by Bryan Versteeg

Bryan Versteeg is one of the best conceptual design artists for space exploration nowadays. Today I have picked one of his concept art pictures for Mars habitat as my "Picture of the Day" for Mars colonization.