In a small village called Boca Chica in southern Texas, right on the border between the USA and Mexico, the interplanetary future of space travel is taking shape. The company SpaceX is building the futuristic spaceport Starbase at this remote location, from which people will soon venture into space, to the moon, and to Mars in the next decade. This new star base is to be expanded into a terrestrial space city with all the necessary technical and social infrastructures to enable constant travel to space. The centerpiece of the newly built spaceport is the Starship. The massive spacecraft is 50 meters tall and has a diameter of 9 meters. It will be able to carry up to 100 passengers per flight. For liftoff, the Starship will be mounted on the Super Heavy Booster. Together, this rocket system is 120 meters tall and completely reusable. The Starship will completely change the way we explore the solar system. It will be able to transport 100 metric tonnes of cargo, including humans, on regular, cost-effective missions to space. The usable volume of the ship is 1,000 cubic meters – large enough to accommodate the entire dismantled Eiffel Tower. In addition, the Starship is designed to be refueled in Earth orbit by other Starships already positioned there. Only then will it be possible to transport people to and from Mars.

The artwork “starbase II” shows the new Starship spacecraft during the construction phase at the spaceport. A diagonal road running into the picture at the bottom leads the viewer's gaze into the image space, directly to the Starbase lettering, which hangs on a wall in large elongated letters. Above it, the massive Starship towers into the sky. With its previously unimaginable size, it dominates the central image space. It looks more like a huge building rising into the evening sky. Various fuel tanks are staggered to the depth on the right and left of the spacecraft. On closer inspection, two tiny people can be seen in the middle of the picture. Workers, standing on a lift, replacing heat tiles on the outer wall of the spacecraft. Looking at these two people, the enormous dimension of the Starship becomes clear, whose first orbital flight is scheduled for spring 2023. The spacecraft can theoretically reach any location in our solar system. The artwork “starbase II” shows a historic phase in the space program of the early 21st century. In the middle of this decade, the Starship will land astronauts on the moon on behalf of NASA, and in the coming decade, humanity will set off from Boca Chica on the journey to Mars and become a bi-planetary species.