Human colony in a Martian crater by James Vaughan

Picture of the Day 26/11/2020 - Digital painting of human colony in a Martian crater by photographer and concept artist James Vaughan. Note the Lockheed Martin's Mars lander launching from the colony. More of Vaughan's aerospace and defense concept art here.

Full painting with a man looking at the colony through a window:

Leaked official render of SpaceX Starship Super Heavy at launch pad in Boca Chica, Texas

Today YouTuber EpicDaniel posted a video which was allegedly uploaded on the official SpaceX YouTube channel on September, 28th 2019 and removed later. The video shows Starship development progress at the time and features a render of Starship Super Heavy at launch pad in Boca Chica, Texas. Here is a screen-stitch created by Austin Barnard from the video:


Note that the (possibly official) render is more than a year old now and thus outdated.

Here is full video reuploaded by EpicDaniel today:

SpaceX Starship interior concept for 64 passengers

Swedish space designer Erik Corshammar (Erc X) and YouTuber smallstars have created their concept of SpaceX's Starship interior layout for 64 passengers.





Deck 0 - cargo hold

Deck 1 - egress options & EVA spacesuits

Deck 2 & 3 - 32 crew bunks in each deck

Mars base in a crater by Sam Taylor

Picture of the Day 12/11/2020 - Retro style illustration of a human base in a Martian crater by digital artist Sam Taylor for his poster "Mars - Adventure Awaits". More of his art here.

Lunar mining colony by Jort van Welbergen

Picture of the Day 8/11/2020 - Lunar mining colony with several landing pads for SpaceX's Starships (pictured here in their 2017 design, then called Big Falcon Ship) by Dutch freelance movie and game concept designer Jort van Welbergen. More of his art here.

Closeup of one of the Starship landing pads with Earth on the horizon:

Sketch of SpaceX Starship SN8 15km flight by Colin Doublier

French urban artist Colin Doublier has created his sketch of SpaceX's Starship SN8 upcoming 15km test flight. More of his art here. The flight will (hopefully) happen in next week and Starship SN8 is the first full scale flight-ready Starship prototype equipped with a nose cone, fins and three Raptor engines.

SpaceX: No Earth-based government has authority or sovereignty over Martian activities

It has been revealed that in Starlink's terms of service SpaceX requires beta testers to recognize Mars as a "free planet". Under the section "Governing Law" the parties agree that:

"For Services provided on Mars, or in transit to Mars via Starship or other colonization spacecraft, the parties recognize Mars as a free planet and that no Earth-based government has authority or sovereignty over Martian activities. Accordingly, Disputes will be settled through self-governing principles, established in good faith, at the time of Martian settlement."

Interestingly the terms for the Moon are different:

"For Services provided to, on, or in orbit around the planet Earth or the Moon, these Terms and any disputes between us arising out of or related to these Terms, including disputes regarding arbitrability will be governed by and construed in accordance with the laws of the State of California in the United States."

Starlink is a satellite internet constellation currently being deployed by SpaceX and it will provide high-speed low-latency internet anywhere on the world (and beyond). The constellation will ultimately consist of thousands of mass-produced small satellites in low Earth orbit (LEO), working in combination with ground transceivers.

As far as we know it is the first time any entity with real potential to send humans to Mars (defined by us as governments and private corporations with the independent human spaceflight capability, which are only four: Russia (since 1961), US (since 1962), China (since 2003) and SpaceX (since 2020)) has declared that Mars should be governed under the principles of self-government.

It remains to be seen if SpaceX will be in power do define that (US government can easily stop SpaceX operations until the company abides to the US and international law) and most likely it's just a way for Elon Musk to draw attention to the upcoming Starlink public release, but it would be cool to see Mars as an independent planet even before the timeframe we have speculated: internal self-governance in 2080s and complete independence in the 22nd century.

*Cover poster "Free Mars" by Rhys Cooper for Total Recall (1990) movie.

SpaceX Starship SN8 15km test flight infographic by Tony Bela

Australian space illustrator Tony Bela has created an infographic of the upcoming 15km test flight of SpaceX's Starship SN8 test vehicle, considering the information publicly available and the observations by fan community at SpaceX's test facility in Boca Chica, Texas.

You can download the infographic in its original resolution here.

Here is his poster of Starship SN8 during lift-off and when performing its "skydiver" belly flop maneuver:

You can download the poster in its original resolution here.

SpaceX Starship Super Heavy launching from sea platform by Roger Bootsma

Austrian 3D environment artist Roger Bootsma has created his vision of SpaceX's Starship Super Heavy launching from sea launch/landing platform. More of his art here. When operational Starship Super Heavies will most likely launch from sea platforms or unpopulated remote locations because of the high noise level during the lift-offs which requires ~30km exclusion zone around the launch site.

Mars exploration caravan at a giant spaceship wreck by Wayne Haag

Picture of the Day 27/10/2020 - Oil painting of Mars exploration caravan at a giant spaceship wreck by Australian concept artist Wayne Haag. More of his art here.