Hydroponic greenhouse in Lunar colony by Erik van Helvoirt

Continuing our Lunar week, celebrating the 50th anniversary of Apollo 11 Moon landing, here is an artwork of a hydroponic greenhouse in Lunar colony by Dutch concept artist Erik van Helvoirt. More of his art here.

SpaceX #dearMoon Starship orbiting the Moon

Official renders of SpaceX #dearMoon Starship orbiting the Moon from #dearMoon Instagram profile.

Artist flying in zero-G inside the Starship:

60 year challenge for humanity: 1969 - Moon, 2029 - Mars

Today 50 years ago first humans - 2 out of 3 Apollo 11 crew members Neil Armstrong & Buzz Aldrin - landed on the Moon. But since then the advancement of human space exploration has been slow. It changed only in recent years with the rise of private space companies, especially SpaceX with its determined focus on rocket reusability and colonization of Mars. Now we have a real chance to land first humans on Mars as soon as 10 years from now, maybe even sooner.

Mars colony by Mauricio Pampin

Picture of the Day 19/7/2019 - Mars colony with several interconnected geodesic domes by Canadian concept artist Mauricio Pampin. More of his art here.

HD quality official renders of SpaceX Starship at Mars Base Alpha and on the Moon

In April Elon Musk on his Twitter profile teased two new renders with SpaceX's Starship on the Moon and at Mars Base Alpha. Unfortunately those were low resolution images. Now we have a HD resolution versions (press Open link in new tab to view) of those renders from SpaceX's Principal Mars Development Engineer Paul Wooster's presentation at Humans to Mars summit 2019 organized by Explore Mars.

Saturn V and SpaceX Starship at launch pad by Gravitation Innovation

Today 50 years ago the most powerful rocket ever built - Saturn V - launched first astronauts to set foot on the Moon. But right now the leading NewSpace company SpaceX is building even more powerful rocket for Mars - Starship & Super Heavy. SpaceX is hoping it to be operational in 2021.

Here is a poster by Gravitation Innovation with Saturn V and SpaceX Starship at launch pad. Note the Starship is at front so it appears a lot bigger than Saturn V at back. In reality the difference in height is minimal with Saturn V being 111 m high and Starship & Super Heavy at 118 m by current design which is subject to change.

Mars rover returning to lander by Jaroslaw Marcinek

Picture of the Day 13/7/2019 - Mars rover returning to a lander by Polish freelance illustrator Jaroslaw Marcinek. More of his art here.

Nazi Moon base by Darren Tan

Singaporean freelance illustrator Darren Tan visualizing the conspiracy theory of a secret Nazi base on the far side of the Moon.

This alternate history science fiction myth was somewhat started by Rocket Ship Galileo, a 1947 young adult novel by Robert Heinlein, which features three teenagers who travel to the Moon and discover a secret Nazi base. Since then the "secret Nazi Moon base" cultural myth has been used in fiction frequently, including The Man in the High Castle novel (1962) by Philip K. Dick (and its recent TV series adaptation), Iron Sky movie (2012) and Wolfenstein: The New Order video game (2014). We should remember that Von Braun's V-2 rocket was the first man made object reaching outer space in June, 1944, and it was the base for both US and Soviet space programs. So the myth had some logical grounds.

Building an industrial complex on Mars by William Black

To survive on Mars longterm humans will need to live off the land (a practice in space exploration called In Situ Resource Utilization or shorter ISRU), so we will need to extract, process and store local resources of the planet. Here is William Black's artistic vision of building an industrial complex on Mars at Syria Planum, located south from Noctis Labyrinthus. More of his space concept art here.

Mars colony in artificial, domed canyon

Picture of the Day 4/7/2019 - design of what could be a human colony in a narrow, artificial, domed canyon on Mars by LAVA architects. This image was done for a design of Masdar City (next to Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates) - a futuristic sustainable city project in development and intended to be a hub for cleantech companies.