Red Mars

Lately I've been reading the Red/Green/Blue Mars trilogy by Kim Stanley Robinson, which chronicles the colonization and terraforming of Mars in a brilliantly detailed and realistic fashion. The reading has also inspired me to take a break from my usual fractals and instead make artwork depicting our neighboring red planet.

Here we have my interpretation of "Red Mars", i.e the planet as it looks in the present day. The atmosphere is exeedingly thin and mostly CO2, and surface temperatures are considerably below the freezing point of water. This is an ancient and hostile world.

The view is centered over Valles Marineris, a canyon system as long as the United States. The Tharsis volcanoes can be seen to the left, and Olympus Mons is barely visible on the western limb.

Green Mars coming soon!

--Created with GIMP