Posts Tagged ‘Ren Wicks’

For those new to Space Gizmo, it should be known that I do a weekly concept art post. I know a lot of you have been referred here from Bad Astronomy, stumbleupon and others. These posts are scheduled every Friday and involve future exploration as well as other concepts.
You’ll find descriptions of the images are directly below the art, and you might have noticed the differences in where I put the caption this time around. So here it is, the 14th concept art posted at 1:53 AM in the morning. Enjoy.

Originally investigated in the 1960′s by Marshall Space Flight Center plarners as part of the Nuclear Energy for Rocket Vehicle Applications (NERVA) program, nuclear-thermal rocket propulsion has been more recently considered in spacecraft designs for interplanetary human exploration. This artist’s concept illustrates a nuclear-thermal rocket with an aerobrake disk as it orbits Mars.

NASA artist’s conception of a human mission to Mars (1989 painting by Les Bossinas of NASA Lewis Research Center).

(1990) – Artist’s concept of the landing of the first human mission to Mars in the year 2019. In the foreground, astronauts conduct scientific observations, recording wind speed with an anemometer and planetary features with a hand-held camera. A dust storm is approaching the cratered area near the landing site. The Martian moons of Phobos and Deimos are visible in the twilight sky. The Mars excursion vehicle in the background serves as crew quarters for the mission. An interplanetary transfer vehicle carried the crew to Mars, with the excursion vehicle launched independently to rendezvous with the transfer vehicle in orbit around Mars. The excursion vehicle will return the crew to the transfer vehicle, parked in Mars orbit, for the return trip to Earth. Crews on later missions will construct surface habitats using Martian materials. The artwork was done for NASA and the NASA Art Program by Ren Wicks. This art concept has a copyright. NASA has a royalty-free license to exercise all rights under the copyright claimed herein for governmental purposes. All other rights reserved by the copyright owner.

The Soviet Union had conceptual plans in the 1980s to send manned spacecraft to Mars in the 1990s, even though its program to land cosmonauts on the moon failed. The mission would have required launching the spacecraft’s components into Earth orbit for assembly. The round-trip journey to Mars would have taken at least a year. Post-Soviet Russia canceled the program due to its expense and questions regarding its feasibility.
Mars Lander
by Brian McMullin, 1986

(February 1991) – Five hundred kilometers above the Chryse Planitia region of Mars, an orbital platform uses a laser sensor to autonomously rendezvous with an approaching sample-return ascent stage. The platform’s robotic arm will remove the sample canister and store it with samples from other locations for delivery to Earth. Artwork done for NASA by Pat Rawlings, of SAIC.

Artist’s concept of possible colonies on future mars missions.