"For All Mankind" season 4 reveals a sprawling first human base on Mars

On September 13 Apple TV+ released the first teaser for season 4 of For All Mankind alternate history sci-fi TV series. The teaser is made in the form of a recruitment ad for Helios Aerospace and reveals in season 4 of the show the company acts as a private operator and transport provider for the international Happy Valley base on Mars. Quite a resemblance to SpaceX in our reality 😉

For All Mankind is exploring the idea of never ending space race if Soviets would have beaten US in the race for the Moon and the intention of the show is each season to jump about a decade further into the increasingly diverging reality of the show: in season 1, depicting alternate 1969 to 1974, both Soviets and US start building their separate bases near the lunar South pole; in season 2 (1983) both bases have been expanded and the superpowers compete for resources on the Lunar surface; in season 3 (1992 to 1995), Soviets and US are joined by a private company Helios and North Korea for a four way race to establish the first human base on Mars. Season 4 will start airing on November 10 on Apple TV+ and will depict the alternate 2003 or so.

Here you can watch the teaser and see some HD images from it:

Helios recruitment posters:

Happy Valley Base overview:

Industrial complex on Mars by Antarik Fox

Picture of the Day 03/09/2023 - AI generated image by Antarik Fox of an industrial complex on Mars.

The leader of the colony addressing settlers on Mars

The leader of the colony gives a speech to a crowd of Martian settlers inside a domed meeting hall of a human colony on Mars – game art from Terraformers – Mars colonization turn based strategy game released on March 2023 and developed by indie game developer Asteroid Lab.

Spaceship launch from Mars colony by Jort van Welbergen

Picture of the Day 13/08/2023 - Spaceship launch from a human colony on Mars by Dutch freelance movie and game concept designer Jort van Welbergen. More of his art here.

Closeup of the colony:

'The World of Tomorrow' (1980) book cover

In his popular science book "The World of Tomorrow", first published in 1980, Robin Kerrod depicted life as it might look in the 21st century. Today, living in the third decade of the 21st century, this depiction might seem overly technologically optimistic (like most past attempts to depict the future), but the book contains many illustrations that positively inspired a whole generation of children. Here, for example, book's cover illustration shows a spacecraft that has landed on Phobos, near a human base:

Jamestown US Moon base in "For All Mankind" season 3

Unlike the first two seasons, which focused on the Moon, season 3 of For All Mankind (an alternate history sci-fi TV series) focuses on Mars. But despite the Jamestown US Moon base being featured only briefly in the season, we can see it has been expanded significantly during the alternate history decade between season 2 (depicting 1983) and season 3 (depicting 1992 to 1995), completing the 1st ring of modules and adding a 2nd ring. So, in this alternate reality of the show development on the Moon has not been neglected because of the Mars mission.

NASA's Sojourner at Jamestown preparing for the mission to Mars:

SpaceX Starship landing at Mars Base Alpha by Mark Garlick

British illustrator Mark Garlick has created a set of renders depicting SpaceX's Starship landing at a spaceport near Mars Base Alpha. The spaceport is equipped with a shorter version of SpaceX's launch integration tower for catching and launching only the second stage of Starship rocket, since Mars's comparably lower gravity doesn't require Starship's booster stage to reach orbit.

Mars. Welcome to paradise

Family walking around a human outpost on Mars in a vintage style poster "Mars. Welcome to paradise" by British freelance illustrator Mark Bell.

Spherical underground Mars colony by Michel Lamontagne

One of the weak spots for any domed human colony on Mars would be the enormous pressure difference needed between the higher interior pressure suitable for humans (~ 1 bar) and the near-vacuum exterior pressure of the Martian atmosphere (0.004-0.011 bar). The dome for such a structure should have heavy anchoring deep underground. But there is a much simpler solution - a spherical hermetic structure mostly underground where only the tip of the sphere (visible as a dome) is located above the ground level. Sphere is the strongest geometric shape for containing internal pressure and the structure can be kept in place by the mass put inside the sphere.

Canadian design engineer Michel Lamontagne has created two concept drawings for such a colony where there is only a domed park above the ground level and all the rest of the colony is located below the ground level with a vertical central opening for natural lighting:

The geodesic surface dome is subdivided into small panes for easier replacement and safety:

Valles Marineris compared to USA

Valles Marineris (or Mariner Valleys) canyon system on Mars is one of the largest canyons of the Solar System. It is located along the equator of Mars and stretches for nearly a quarter of the planet's circumference. Valles Marineris is more than 4000 km (2500 mi) long, 200 km (120 mi) wide and up to 7 km (23,000 ft) deep.

Here is an infographic created by NASA comparing Valles Marineris to the territory of Contiguous United States (48 US states without Alaska and Hawaii) for scale: