This New Ocean

In the mid eighties, a system of cycling spaceships picking up and dropping off OTVs near Earth and Mars was proposed as an efficient system to supply a manned Mars presence. I've shown 3 such OTVs rising in elliptical orbit over Mars, from their initial aerocapture maneuver. 2 Astronauts conduct EVA from the nearer OTV with MMUs. I've tried updating the 80's design with materials for the habitats based on Boeing's ISS modules. This piece was modeled, lit and rendered in Lightwave 7.5c, on a Mac dual 1.2 Gig G4. Thanks to [link] for the Mars bump and color maps, based on MOLA data and Mars Observer images.