Exploring the Mars Frontier requires scientists, engineers and artists.

The Art of Exploration

My name is Corby Waste and I create artwork for the NASA Mars Exploration Program which is managed by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. Since 1998 I've been at JPL visualizing Mars missions. I have to imagine what it's like to be on Mars or in orbit. Before I arrived at the Lab the Mars program mostly used paintings of their spacecraft. I create my artwork with computer graphics. Most likely you've already seen my Mars or other mission artwork for years but never knew who created them because the image credits usually say only: NASA JPL. In certain cases the images may have been created by me on my own time. But generally these are all NASA JPL-owned pics.

It's a big job helping to open up the Mars Frontier but someone has to do it!

 

Happy 2010!

 

 

 

Site Directory

My Life on Mars: Working for the Mars Program

Selected Mars Mission Art Headlines Poster

 Click on mini-poster to see larger version.

 

Click on the link below to see where my artwork is being used in over 66 countries around the world.

 

In recent years my JPL Mars projects have included the 2008 Phoenix Mars Lander mission, the 2011 Mars Science Laboratory (MSL), the 2013 MAVEN Mars Scout, a 2016 Mars Orbiter, a 2018 rover and Mars Sample Return. In addition I've worked on visualizations for the Titan Saturn System Mission ( TSSM ) Outer Planets Flagship Mission Study. Some of my other current JPL projects include the 2011 GRAIL mission to map the Moon's gravity and a new one: the MoonRise New Frontiers proposal, which was just selected as one of the final three candidate missions that will now compete with each other. I've been busy, as usual!

There are graphical links all through this site - just click on everything to learn more.

Notable Additions: Dec. 2009

 

 

First MAVEN Artwork

  
"MAVEN studying Mars atmosphere's loss to space" is a new image I created showing the 2013 MAVEN Mars Scout. MAVEN stands for "Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution"   My Enceladus geyser fly-through scene is on the cover of David Harland's "Robotic Exploration of the Solar System, Part 3: The Modern Era 1997-2009"

 

The GRAIL logo will be launched on the side of the rocket in Sept., 201

 

 

2011 Mars Science Laboratory (MSL)

Launch: October, 2011

Oct. 8, 2008:  Cost Overruns Threaten NASA's Next-Generation Mars Rover Project. The article used my artwork and added the words "What A Waste". Too bad the article didn't include the image credit: Corby Waste, that would have been a really odd coincidence!

 

  

 

 

2007 Phoenix Mars Lander

Launched August 4, 2007

Landed on Mars May 25, 2008

My Phoenix Mars Lander artwork appeared all over the world-wide media because of it's successful mission. The graphic link above shows me in front of the Phoenix Mars Lander at Lockheed Martin Space Systems near Denver in 2007.

 
  

 

 

Phoenix Mars Lander snapped these images showing the midnight Sun and clouds on Mars!
New Phoenix 3D

Highly Recommended!

 

A remarkable story that is partly illustrated with my Phoenix artwork (but the real credit goes to Steve the Cat's owner)

 

 

 

 

2005 Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter

Launched Aug. 2005

Arrived in orbit March, 2006

  

 

I created a whole series of MRO images.

 

 Welcome to Mars, "Mr. O"!
 2005: I went to see MRO at Lockheed Martin Space Systems near Denver, Colorado and take pictures. That's me in two of the pictures

 

 

 

MRO project manger Jim Graf shaking hand of Dr. Firouz Naderi, with JPL Director Charles Elachi in the center. Note that they are all wearing MRO Flight Operations Team shirts with my logo on them, standing in front of my artwork on the wall. They're also wearing special MRO MOI event badges with my artwork as well. It was a great day for Mars exploration and my artwork!

 

 

 

 

NASA JPL has 2 highly sophisticated twin rovers called "Spirit" and "Opportunity" on Mars. They've been operating successfully now since January of 2004 and are still going strong. During the spring of 2004 my office was located with part of the rover team. Click on the images below to learn more.

 

 

Mars Express

NASA is participating in the European Space Agency's Mars Express mission. All of the images of Mars Express on the US mission website were created by me. The Mars Express mission is turning out to be very important scientifically and the pictures it sends back are amazing - they can be seen here. Below is a recent example of the high quality images Mars Express is capturing.

 

Mars Express image of water ice in crater at Martian north pole

 

It is a special pleasure to be part of such a successful international Mars mission. JPL played a key part in it's success.

 

2001 Mars Odyssey

I created virtually all of the NASA artwork for the 2001 mission

 

 

 

Mars Surveyor 98

 Mars Climate Orbiter  Mars Polar Lander

 

Mars Global Surveyor (MGS)

Entered Mars orbit on September 11, 1997

Missing presumed lost November, 2006

   

 
My now famous image of Mars Global Surveyor   Sept. 20, 2006 at JPL: I finally got to meet astronaut, scientist, educator/author Sally Ride in person. She played a part in my creation of the Mars Global Surveyor image, left.

 

 

 

 

10 years on Mars!

2008 marked my 10th anniversary of helping the Mars program at JPL. Many people have asked me how I was able to get such a great job. Perhaps reading about my previous space experiences will help explain. Click on the link below to read about some my pre-JPL hightlights.

 

 

National Research Council Mars books

These books are basically detailed reports from the top experts on what the future priorities of the Mars Exploration Program should be. All five books feature some of my Mars mission artwork on their covers. Click on them to learn more.

 

 

 

Corby Crater in the news

Click on the articles from Corby, UK

 

Corby Waste, JPL, mentioned on BBC Comedy Show !

Andrew Rees, a friend from my years in Tenby, Wales, UK (1962-1964) rediscovered me this way:

 "LAST SATURDAY I WAS WATCHING A PROGAMME ON BBC 1 HERE IN SUNNY OLD PEMBROKESHIRE AND LO AND BEHOLD THE NAME CORBY WASTE CAME UP. THE PROG IS CALLED 'QI' AS IN 'QUITE INTERESTING', A SORT OF A PANEL GAME HOSTED BY STEPHEN FRY. THEY HAD BEEN TALKING ABOUT CORBY IN THE UK, THE CORBY TROUSER PRESS, CORBY WASTE DISPOSAL ETC AND FRY MENTIONED YOUR NAME IN CONNECTION WITH YOUR WORK AT JPL."

 

That episode aired on Nov. 19, 2005. I bought it on DVD.

 

 

 

My own Mars stamps!

I've discovered 51 of my Mars mission images on foreign postage stamps! So far they've been issued by Guyana, Nevis, Niger, Palau, Somalia, Madagascar, Guinea, Dominica, Togo, Tanzania, Gambia, Cote D'Ivoire, Guinea-Bissau, the Comoro Islands, Grenada, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Niue and Kiribati. Click on them to see the collection. My Mars artwork has also appeared in books, on mugs, watches, toy boxes, clothes, etc., but this is one of my favorites.

 

 

Site Directory

Keywords: Mars artist - NASA artist- JPLA

ist - Space artist

Exploration Artwork GalleriesAt
 
Gateway to the Mars Frontier

 

 

Images Courtesy: NASA JPL/Caltech, Artist: Corby Waste

 Mars artist contact: Corby Waste or corby.waste@jpl.nasa.gov

 
  JPL artist Corby Waste, soon after his arrival on Mars on March 2, 1998. Welcome to Outer Space!  

 

The opinions expressed in the Fourth Millennium are strictly my own. This is not a NASA website.