Early human base on Mars by Ronan Le Fur (Dofresh)

Picture of the Day 10/8/2019 - Astronaut observing early human base on Mars by French concept artist and illustrator Ronan Le Fur (known as Dofresh). More of his art here.

Cutaway diagram of SpaceX Starship

Unofficial cutaway diagram (in German, look for text translation in English here) of SpaceX's Starship by German illustrator Julian Schindler. More of his art here. Starship & Super Heavy is a fully reusable two-stage super heavy-lift launch vehicle and spacecraft currently developed by leading NewSpace company SpaceX. On August 24 mid-September SpaceX's CEO Elon Musk will make a presentation of the current status of Starship development.

SpaceX stainless steel Starship prototype by Owen Egan

Concept render of SpaceX's stainless steel Starship prototype by British graphic designer Owen Egan (known on NASASpaceFlight.com forum as "tea monster"). More of his art here.

SpaceX has already built the first prototype Starship test vehicle (Starhopper) without any nose cone at its Boca Chica launch facility in South Texas, mated it with a single Raptor engine and conducted several hop test. Starhopper lifted up for about 20 meters in the last test. Simultaneously SpaceX is already building two next generation test vehicles – Starship Mk 1 in Boca Chica and Starship Mk 2 in Cocoa, Florida. Mk 1 will fly up to an altitude of 20 kilometers in a few months.

Leaving the cradle - incredible trailer of TerraGenesis

The latest trailer of TerraGenesis mobile game made by famous YouTuber MelodySheep is just stunning, reminding the vibes of The Expanse TV series. TerraGenesis is a popular mobile terraforming simulator game where you can establish a colony and gradually terraform other planetary bodies in Solar System.



Here are some images from the trailer:

Mission to Phobos by Ludovic Celle

Picture of the Day 30/7/2019 - Spacecraft approaching the largest and closest of the two [asteroid size] Martian moons - Phobos - by French graphic artist Ludovic Celle. More of his Mars art here.

Next phase of SpaceX Starship test program - sketch by Colin Doublier

Last night SpaceX's Starship test vehicle - the Starhopper - performed its first untethered hop about 20m high. In 2 weeks Starhopper will perform a much higher hop of about 200m, but in a few months the Starship test program will move to the next phase - flights as high as 20 km. For it SpaceX is already simultaneously building two Starship prototypes in Boca Chica, Texas and Cocoa, Florida - Starship Mk 1 & Starship Mk 2 respectively. Those prototypes initially will have three Raptor engines (Starhopper has only one).

Here is a sketch of Starship Mk 1 lifting up by French urban artist Colin Doublier. More of his art here.

SpaceX Starship in high Lunar orbit by William Falconer-Beach

Picture of the Day 24/7/2019 - SpaceX's Starship in high Lunar orbit by William Falconer-Beach. More of his Starship renders here.

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.