Today, July 30, at 7:50 AM (EDT) NASA will launch its next generation Mars 2020 Perseverance rover to Mars. The rover will land on Mars on February 18, 2021 in Jezero Crater (Western Isidis Planitia) to collect samples for later retrieval; the rover will be accompanied by a small reconnaissance drone-helicopter Ingenuity.
Here you can watch NASA's livestream of the launch:
The Perseverance is a twin rover of the Curiosity rover (working on Mars since 2012) with some upgrades:
Overview of the Perseverance scientific instruments:
Picture of the Day 29/7/2020 - SpaceX's Starship fleet consisting of several crew and cargo Starships orbiting Earth and preparing to depart for Mars by Scottish photographer & designer Dale Rutherford. More of his art here.
Polish 3D artist Andrzej Pawelec has created his concept how SpaceX's Mars Colony could look like in a few decades with thousands of inhabitants. Here is detailed animation and drawings of his concept:
Unofficial cutaway diagram of SpaceX's Lunar Starship interior by Rocket Posters. The Lunar Starship is lunar optimized version (for NASA's Artemis program) of the fully reusable super heavy-lift spacecraft - Starship - currently developed by leading NewSpace company SpaceX.
Illustration of an astronaut on Mars, as viewed through the window of a spacecraft, by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory's visual strategist Joby Harris. More of his art here.
Picture of the Day 29/6/2020 - Concept art for SpaceX's orbital station above partly terraformed Mars by Encho Enchev from Ubisoft. More of his concept art here.
CG creator Konstantin Ermolaev has created his vision of SpaceX's early Mars Base Alpha in a Martian crater. Here are several of his renders with three Starships landed at the base. More of his art here.
Picture of the Day 8/6/2020 - wallpaper with a woman waking up in the morning at a futuristic city on terraformed Mars by German digital artist Christian Hecker. More of his art here.
(Open link in new tab to view ⇩ in HD wallpaper resolution)