The Space Elevator to Mars - Descent At Dusk

About 40 hours of work on this massive photomanipulation, made in high definition. I first built a 3D model (in Blender) of the whole area thanks to NASA topographic data (MGS MOLA), set the correct light and then photo-manipulated it carefully in Gimp, adding layers of color map (Viking) and high definition texture map (MGS MOC), plus adding the many details. The cable of the space elevator is also a 3D model.
So, we are in a travel cabin, descending along the cable of the space elevator, descending to Sheffield, the spaceport located on top of Pavonis Mons (the central volcano on the image). The time at the surface is dusk, and several large cities are appearing in the dark.
This image is entirely inspired by Kim Stanley Robinson's Mars Trilogy.

ENJOY IT IN HD HERE.  &  PRINTS AVAILABLE HERE

As always, made 100% open-source on Linux-Ubuntu, with Blender and Gimp.
I'd like to publicly thank Daniel Macháček for his fundamental help in the making of this image, as he taught me how to use the NASA data sets in the best way available. Whithout his help I doubt I would have been able to bring that realism in this picture. Please check out Daniel's astronomy photo-mosaics blog : http://my-favourite-universe.blogspot.fr/
I want also to thank NASA and USGS for the wonderful and free data made available in such a cool way.
I mostly used MapAPlanet www.mapaplanet.org/

If you want to follow me on Facebook, here I am !
Finally, let me recommend you the excellent kimstanleyrobinson.info website, where you'll get to know everything about KSR's books, past, present and upcoming. A site worth following, on FB and Twitter too !

Olympus Mons awakens

Another photo-manipulation that I just made.
This is the famous Olympus Mons seen from orbit as it is erupting gloriously.
To make this picture, I started with a 3D model (on Blender) : with a grayscale height map of the volcano (NASA data) used with the Blender's "displace modifier", I had a realistic setting of the light on this massive geology. I then rendered the lightened 3D model and photo-manipulated it (with Gimp) to add several light effects, the clouds layer and many improved textures (especially the caldera).

All made on Linux-Ubuntu.

Enjoy it in HD on my DeviantArt gallery ! (click twice on the image to see it in full details, especially the caldera)

In KSR's Mars Trilogy, there is no eruption on Mars, but I thought such mystical scene deserved a graphic try ! ;)

Mission to Phobos

I've been wanting to depict Phobos from that angle for a long long time...
In case you don't know, Phobos is the main moon of Mars (the other being Deimos) and rotates close to Mars (about 9,400 km from its surface - considering Mars has a diameter of 6,779 km), which means when on Phobos, you would have a majestic sight on Mars. Also, Phobos has almost no gravity, which means you could almost approach it as an asteroid, which differs a lot from approaching our Moon.
I've worked around 6 hours on this photomanipulation, made with Gimp (+ a 3D sphere mapping of Mars with Blender).

All on Linux-Ubuntu.

ENJOY IT IN HD on my DeviantArt gallery.

Martian Oasis

After quite a long time without update, here comes a new photomanipulation for future Mars !
Actually, this is one that I made quickly months ago for my recent giant mosaic, but I thought it deserved some improvements and an individual and large presentation here.
The original photo, which is public domain, is of a small village in the mountains of southern Afghanistan.
What we see here is a pressurized tent sheltering an oasis where the future of Mars agriculture is being tested and developed. Some tiny super resilient plants are already able to grow on the surrounding hills, but the atmosphere inside the tent allows a vast variety of farming inspired by the experience of thousands of years on Earth. The tent shelters very few buildings in order to leave as much space as possible to the cultures. That said, the area hides a vast inhabited underground complex. The exterior buildings are just the visible part of this scientific base.
As always, I made this with open-source program GIMP on Linux-Ubuntu.

The Mars Trilogy mosaic - 588 images inspired by KSR's books

This new Mars Trilogy mosaic is my kaleidoscopic vision of the incredible wealth of the Kim Stanley Robinson's martian books. 588 pictures gathered here as a sort of eye mandala with the 3 colors of the terraforming stages.
This giant mosaic full of details is an ambitious new take on a first attempt last year.
The images come from various public domain sources (a lot are from NASA) and from my personal photographs, 3D models and photomanipulations. The majority of the images have been through a manipulation process to stick as much as possible to the Mars theme. For instance, I had to give a brown sky to almost all the photos that had a blue one. This whole work of gathering images and caring for all the details and tones is a huge process along the past 6 months.

Here the file is 2000 pixels large, but the original version is very very big, designed as a mural whose details would still look sharp if printed by 5m large! This mosaic is the biggest piece of my current Mars exhibition in Grenoble (see previous news) where it can be seen printed at 2,50 wide.
TO DISCOVER THE HUNDREDS OF DETAILS IN THE MOSAIC, SEE IT BIGGER HERE (DeviantArt)

Made on Ubuntu with Gimp (for the photomanipulations and crops) and with AndreaMosaic (to assemble the mosaic). The 3D models that appear on some images were made on Sketchup and Blender.

"Red Mars" - my photomanipulations exhibited in Grenoble

In Grenoble (France), from June 20 to september 7th (except july), I hold an exhibition of my Red Mars photomanipulations. The title is "Mars la Rouge - photo-montages de Ludovic Celle"
It is located in the town center's library (Bibliothèque Centre-Ville, 10 rue de la République). Though the exhibition already started yesterday, the actual launch event will happen on june 27th at 6pm.
The exhibition features 13 of my photomanipulations + a brand new giant mosaic made of around 600 pictures of Red, Green and Blue Mars (which I will soon unveil in HD on the web). The prints are from pretty large size to very very big, the kind of dimensions my pictures have always been made for.
The library staff, my friend from KimStanleyRobinsonInfo and I have gathered a nice selection of KSR books that are displayed in the exhibition to connect my artwork with the novels themselves.
If you pass by Grenoble, come have a look at my Mars exhbition and don't hesitate to contact me by e-mail in case I am available to guide you!
If you are on Facebook, you can like my graphic art page where I often post new art and photos from the exhibition and other events around my work. It's in french, but mostly visual.

Orbiting Mars

Here is a new photomanipulation I made today.
We are looking at Mars from a manned spacecraft. The 200km wide view is on Ophir Chasma, a region of Valles Marineris.
With all the Mars trips projects announced or to be annouced these days, we are just a few years away until this picture becomes real.
The photos used for this image are both from NASA :
-The ISS cupola shot during STS-130 (2010)
-Ophir Chasma shot by Viking 1 in 1976

As always, I made the photomanipulation with GIMP on Linux-Ubuntu.

Green Mars globe 01

Here is an original Christmas present !
This is my very first try to make a realistic looking terraformed Mars globe. We see the planet here in advanced Green stage.

All work done on Gimp, with a globe of Earth mixed with a globe of Mars. Click here to enjoy it in full HD on my DeviantArt page.
Comments are welcome !

Mars and the space elevator

Finally my space elevator triptych is completed, with this last sight caught between the two ends of the cable. On this point of view we are still very close to the surface and very very far to the mid-distance of the cable, still thousands kilometers away ! Anyway, enjoy the view and take a look at the full triptych.

I made this picture with GIMP on Linux-Ubuntu.

This new photo-manipulation is based on the huge photographic mosaic of the Nasa Viking 1 Orbiter shots by Daniel Machácek. This original picture looks to the east, on Argyre Planitia. For more information on this region, see here.

A special space elevator poster is coming very soon...

Clarke and the space elevator

I go on with the Space Elevator theme, with this new photomanipulation showing the "space end" of the cable. In Red Mars, Kim Stanley Robinson tells the setting of an asteroid in high martian orbit, as a necessary mass keeping the space elevator cable straight. This asteroid, Clarke, is named after science fiction writer Arthur C. Clarke, who described the space elevator concept in one of his novels. (learn more here) KSR imagines that the cable is made directly from Clarke, with the asteroid's material, mined and turned in carbon nanotubes, made in space !
This photomanipulation works with the previous one, that showed Sheffield, the town where the cable rises from the surface of Mars. KSR describes the cable as being 35.000 km long and 10m thick.
More than just a useful mass for the cable's balance, Clarke is a base in itself, a spaceport full of docks, living and working areas for the people involved in space travel, space cargos as well as a spacious station for travellers of all kinds. What we don't see in the picture are the spaceships waiting for passengers leaving Mars or bringing new ones to Mars.

For the manipulation, I've used elements from a photo of the ISS by NASA, and a shot of Saturn's moon Phoebe for the asteroid (photo). The entrance of the cable is a small part of a photo of Kuala Lumpur's skyscrapers by Paul Mannix (original photo).

I made this picture with GIMP on Linux-Ubuntu.

The scale of Phobos

This new picture is to be an exception here, as it is not located on Mars ! Since I've started being interested by Mars, I am fascinated by the scale of the planet and its features, and of course, there is Phobos, its largest moon (the other one being Deimos). What better way to give a scale than to compare with actual things on Earth ?
So, here is Phobos standing over my town Grenoble in the Alpes (eastern France). Phobos' dimensions are 26,8 x 18,4 km. If you carefully look at the center of the picture, you'll see 2 helicopters, still quite far from the "big rock".
Here too is a companion picture showing in satellite view how Grenoble and Phobos compare. We can see there that the entire town of Grenoble would easily fit inside Stickney crater, Phobos' largest crater (on the right).

I made this with TheGimp on Linux-Ubuntu. A 5 hours work.

In the Greek Mythology, the twins Phobos and Deimos ("fear" and "dread") were god sons of Ares ("Mars").

Ascending Pavonis Mons up to Sheffield

Imagine yourself in the warmth of a comfortable rover, automatically ascending the endless flank of Pavonis Mons, one of Mars' giant volcanos. Outside, the temperature is below -120°C. Up there on the horizon, slowly appearing is the shining tent of Sheffield, the famous liftport of the space elevator. The elevator's cable stands straight and disappears among the stars. This all makes you feel you already are in orbit...

Sheffield is 3 kilometres away. You will be there in half an hour. The intense town's activity, busy with hundreds of passengers for the cable, will be a huge contrast to the lonely and silent ascent you just accomplished in the dark and red night. Altitude 14 km, where starts the space elevator that will take you right in space in a few hours.

As said on MangalaWiki, "because of its high altitude, Sheffield is condemned to remain a tented city."

This photo-montage is a lot inspired by a sequence in Red Mars : Ann Clayborne alone in her rover, making the very very long ascent of Olympus Mons and going so high that it feels like in space. This photo-montage here is a kind of transcription of this scene on Pavonis Mons.

(Made with TheGimp on Linux-Ubuntu)

Milky Way photo from ALMA by (European Southern Observatory) ESO/José Francisco Salgado.

Driving in the storm

Mars is a planetary desert. Living and exploring it will be a challenge in many ways, for both humans and vehicles. Here is a new photo-montage of a big pressurized rover riding dunes during a dust storm. Such vehicle -that would carry an entire crew of scientists- will have to be perfectly designed to face many kinds of terrains and keep humans from the deadly atmosphere, in particular from the very fine and tricky dust of Mars, one of the toughest issues for missions out there. Just as Kim Stanley Robinson describes in Red Mars, the planet sometimes gets covered by dust storms that can last several martian years. Then imagine how many drives like the one above settlers would have to do. In such conditions, geolocation help from satellites will be a question of survival. But well, maybe the choice would be to move as few as possible during those storms, even if it lasts years...

The rover is a 3D model made with Sketchup, and the photo-montage is made with TheGimp on Linux-Ubuntu.

Sheffield and the space elevator

Here is a new montage showing the base of the space elevator on the tented town called "Sheffield", built on the summit of Pavonis Mons volcano (see Red Mars). The cable is supposed to be 10m thick, which means here than Sheffield city is very big here, at a large level of development. On the foreground, you can see coloured urban lights. I imagine the main entry to the planet's surface would like to be a rich and welcoming show for new settlers. I also imagine the tent' skin would be blue, to balance the so red and grey landscape.

(Made with The Gimp on Linux-Ubuntu)

For details on the space elevator in KSR's Mars trilogy, read the space elevator page of MangalaWiki, the wiki of KSR-info. 

Down in Noctis Labyrinthus

Valles Marineris, the famous martian canyon, is among the biggest geographical features of the solar system : 4000 km long, 200 km wide and up to 7 km deep ! (Wikipedia)
To give an idea of the terrible scale of this place, I've made this new photo-montage showing a rover exploration of Noctis Labyrinthus, a region in the western edge of the canyon.
As an information, the rover you can see here is a 6 m tall vehicle. A man would be half of its wheels height.

(Made with The Gimp on Linux-Ubuntu)

Cultivating bamboo on Mars 01

In Red Mars, Robinson imagines the importance for settlers of cultivating bamboo as a material for interior architecture. They have a greenhouse in the big Ares ship that takes them to Mars, and when they set on the planet, they go on growing bamboo for the constructive use.
So here is a vision I've had in mind for a long time : a vision from inside a bamboo greenhouse on Mars. The bamboo photo is a shot of an actual bamboo forest I do maintain near Grenoble (France). Here is a link to my bamboo blog.

The colors are pretty saturated, but well, this sight is just surreal !

(Made with The Gimp on Linux-Ubuntu) 

Olympus Mons from orbit

And now, Olympus Mons !
Here we have an orbital sight on the oversize volcano as a ship is entering the atmosphere down there.
Olympus Mons summit is 26 km above the surrounding plains, its caldera (crater) has a 60-80 km diameter and 3 km high cliffs. (Wikipedia)

This montage is based on a beautiful mosaic of 12 images from NASA's Viking orbiter 1 taken in 1980 and assembled by artist Daniel Macháček in 2011. You can see Daniel's series of high resolution mosaics here.

(Made with The Gimp on Linux-Ubuntu)

Tent on a canyon 01

I just completed this new montage, a quite challenging one actually ! It shows a tent on a canyon, where shelters a scientific station.

I choosed blue for the main buildings, because I think this color would be very sane for the Mars settlers, and also because it does contrast well with the red dust and then makes the structures more visible in the distance. The two big gates are airlocks large enough for rovers.

(Made with The Gimp on Linux-Ubuntu)

To have a vision of my best Mars pictures, get to the gallery !

A mohole behind the horizon 01

In Red Mars, Kim Stanley Robinson describes some very industrial aspects of the terraforming. One of these is the moholes. They are over-size pits, 1km large and going around 15km down in the planet's crust ! It reaches geothermical depths that smoke out of the moholes and contributes to the warm up of the atmosphere needed for the terraforming. This smoke makes the moholes visible from very far.
I just made this montage to express such heavy human presence on the (still) red planet. I put on the ledge of the mohole a gigantic crane, and a tent that protects the town where live the many workers of the mohole.

(Made with The Gimp on Linux-Ubuntu)

To know more about moholes, visit the excellent mohole page of MangalaWiki, the wiki of KSR-info.

Descending Candor Chasma At Night 01

An almost invisible column of rovers is descending Candor Chasma in the night.
The original picture is a perspective version of Mars Express snapshots from 2006 (ESA link).
Though I have made the light spots as small as possible, they are still too large to be at scale because this "valley" is 40km large ! I will definitely explore more visions like that and will try to give a more realistic sense of the scale of such Mars location.

(Made with The Gimp on Linux-Ubuntu)