After Hours

Desktop Wallpaper: NASA concept art

By // November 20, 2012, 5:15 PM PST // markwkaelin

Image 1 of 29

  • NASA N+3 Supersonic

    Some of the most interesting images available on the NASA.gov website are artist renderings of space exploration concepts. Here are a few of my favorites.

    All of these images come from the NASA.gov website and represent a small sample of the available images. I encourage you to explore the NASA multimedia library for additional images.

    Remember, click the thumbnail image to get the highest resolution version of each image.

    This artist's rendering shows an advanced concept design of an environmentally friendly supersonic airframe and propulsion system. Credit: Lockheed Martin Corporation.

    Resource: NASA.gov

  • Multiple Whirlpools in a Sodium Gas Cloud

    This image depicts the formation of multiple whirlpools in a sodium gas cloud. Scientists who cooled the cloud and made it spin created the whirlpools in a Massachusetts Institute of Technology laboratory, as part of NASA-funded research.

    Resource: NASA.gov

  • Stardust

    Artist's rendering of the Stardust capsule's return to Earth. The Stardust spacecraft will bring back samples of interstellar dust, including recently discovered dust streaming into our Solar System from the direction of Sagittarius.

    Resource: NASA.gov

  • Stardust on approach

    Artist's rendering of the Stardust spacecraft. The spacecraft was launched on February 7, 1999, from Cape Canaveral Air Station, Florida, aboard a Delta II rocket. The primary goal of Stardust is to collect dust and carbon-based samples during its closest encounter with Comet Wild 2 -- pronounced "Vilt 2" after the name of its Swiss discoverer.

    Resource: NASA.gov

  • Odyssey Detecting Ice

    This artist's rendering portrays ice-rich layers in the soils of Mars being detected by instruments aboard NASA's 2001 Mars Odyssey spacecraft.

    Resource: NASA.gov

  • Constellation Program

    NASA's Constellation Program is getting to work on the new spacecraft that will return humans to the moon and blaze a trail to Mars and beyond. This artist's rendering represents a concept of a lunar lander, lunar rover and astronauts on the moon's surface. Earth is also visible in this rendering. (Depicts obsolete configuration.)
    Image credit: John Frassanito and Associates

    Resource: NASA.gov

  • Lunar exploration

    An artists's rendering gives a possible preview of 21st century lunar base activity. A lunar surface crane removes a newly arrived habitation module from an expendable lunar lander.

    Resource: NASA.gov

  • International Space Station

    Computer-generated artist's rendering of the International Space Station as of May 29, 2009.

    Resource: NASA.gov

  • Hypersonic Flight Vehicle X-43B

    An artist's rendering of the air-breathing, hypersonic X-43B, the third and largest of NASA's Hyper-X series flight demonstrators, which could fly later this decade. Revolutionizing the way we gain access to space is NASA's primary goal for the Hypersonic Investment Area, managed for NASA by the Advanced Space Transportation Program at the Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama.

    Resource: NASA.gov

  • Dusty Beginnings of a Star

    This artist's rendering gives us a glimpse into a cosmic nursery as a star is born from the dark, swirling dust and gas of this cloud. Stars form when dark dust from the cloud begins to clump together under the influence of its own gravity. The infalling material forms a disk as it spirals inward, which feeds material onto the forming star at its center. Jets of material that shoot from the inner disk and protostar herald its birth.

    Resource: NASA.gov

  • Mars exploration

    Planners feel the microscopic formations in Mars meteorite ALH84001, found in Antarctica, and the highly diverse samples of rocks believed to have been strewn about by ancient rivers seen at the Mars Pathfinder landing site, provide a strong motive for sending human exobiologists and geologists to the Red Planet. This artist's rendering depicts two such scientists.

    Resource: NASA.gov

  • Solar System exploration

    On the way to the Jovian system, a nuclear thermal transfer vehicle refuels in a Mars-orbit near Martian moon Phobos, in this artist's rendering. This steady-state system could provide a reliable foundation for the exploration and eventual colonization of the Solar System. This image produced for NASA by Pat Rawlings, (SAIC). Technical concepts for NASA's Exploration Office, Johnson Space Center (JSC).

    Resource: NASA.gov

  • Constellation Program

    NASA's Constellation Program is getting to work on the new spacecraft that will return humans to the moon and blaze a trail to Mars and beyond. This artist's rendering represents a concept of rendezvous and docking operations between a crew exploration vehicle (CEV) and the International Space Station.

    Resource: NASA.gov

  • Telescope in orbit

    This artist's rendering represents a concept of possible activities during future space exploration missions. It depicts astronauts working in chorus with robots to assemble a telescope in orbit.

    Resource: NASA.gov

  • Lunar vehicle

    This artist's rendering represents a concept of possible activities during future space exploration missions. It depicts a crew traverse at the lunar south pole.

    Resource: NASA.gov

  • Landsat Program



    Resource: NASA.gov

  • Sunset on Enceladus

    In this artist's rendering, a distant sun forms a halo (refracted sunlight by ice crystals) amid streamers of pure water ice particles, which spew into space from cracks in the south polar surface of Saturn's tiny moon Enceladus.

    Image by Karl Kofoed -- Drexel Hill, Pennsylvania

    Resource: NASA.gov

  • Eclipsing Pulsar Promises Clues to Crushed Matter

    Astronomers using NASA's Rossi X-ray Timing Explorer (RXTE) have found the first fast X-ray pulsar to be eclipsed by its companion star. Further studies of this unique stellar system will shed light on some of the most compressed matter in the universe and test a key prediction of Einstein's relativity theory.

    Resource: NASA.gov

  • Sailing Among the Stars

    Artist's rendering of a four-quadrant solar sail propulsion system, with payload. NASA is designing and developing such concepts, a sub-scale model of which may be tested on a future NMP mission.

    Resource: NASA.gov

  • Subsonic fixed wing aircraft

    An artist's rendering of the potential design for a subsonic fixed wing aircraft that could enter service in the 2030-2035 timeframe (N+3). Credit: Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Image credit: Massachusetts Institute of Technology

    Resource: NASA.gov

  • 21st Century Aerospace Vehicle

    An artist's rendering shows advanced concepts NASA envisions for an aircraft of the future. Called the 21st Century Aerospace Vehicle, and sometimes nicknamed the Morphing Airplane, the concept includes a variety of smart technologies that could enable inflight configuration changes for optimum flight characteristics.

    Resource: NASA.gov

  • SWIFT

    An artist's rendering of the Swift spacecraft with a gamma-ray burst going off in the background. Credit: Spectrum Astro

    Resource: NASA.gov

  • GLAST space telescope

    An artist's concept of the GLAST space telescope in orbit above Earth.

    Resource: NASA.gov

  • Prehistoric Black Hole



    Resource: NASA.gov

  • Lunar Meteor Strike

    This artist's rendering of a small but powerful meteor strike on the surface of the moon demonstrates a key concern for future lunar explorers -- mitigating potential risks from impact "ejecta," or the spray of debris that follows an impact, unimpeded by gravity or atmosphere. NASA astronomers are studying lunar impacts to help safeguard future missions to Earth's nearest celestial neighbor. (NASA/MSFC)

    Resource: NASA.gov

  • Alien World

    This artist's rendering shows a gas-giant exoplanet transiting across the face of its star. Infrared analysis by NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope of this type of system provided the breakthrough.

    Resource: NASA.gov

  • Birth of an Earth-like Planet (Artist concept)



    Resource: NASA.gov

  • Neutron explosion



    Resource: NASA.gov

  • The IC 10 X-1 black hole

    In this artist’s portrayal of the IC 10 X-1 system, the black hole lies at the upper left and its companion star is on the right. The two objects orbit around a center of gravity once every 34.4 hours. The stellar companion is a type known as a Wolf-Rayet star. Such stars are highly evolved and destined to explode as supernovae. The black hole companion is shedding its outer envelope in a powerful wind, and some of this gas is captured by the black hole’s powerful gravity. Credit: Aurore Simonnet/Sonoma State University/NASA.

    Resource: NASA.gov

NASA N+3 Supersonic

Some of the most interesting images available on the NASA.gov website are artist renderings of space exploration concepts. Here are a few of my favorites.

All of these images come from the NASA.gov website and represent a small sample of the available images. I encourage you to explore the NASA multimedia library for additional images.

Remember, click the thumbnail image to get the highest resolution version of each image.

This artist's rendering shows an advanced concept design of an environmentally friendly supersonic airframe and propulsion system. Credit: Lockheed Martin Corporation.

Resource: NASA.gov

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About Mark Kaelin

Mark W. Kaelin has been writing and editing stories about the IT industry, gadgets, finance, accounting, and tech-life for more than 25 years. Most recently, he has been a regular contributor to BreakingModern.com, aNewDomain.net, and TechRepublic.