There are quite a few insanely talented artist out there who are creating images of spacecraft designed with some scientific accuracy. This section is a showcase of their work. Click on the images for a larger version.
HEY, ARTISTS! YOU GOT THE POWER
30. (von Tiesenhausen's Law of Engineering Design) If you want to have a maximum effect on the design of a new engineering system, learn to draw. Engineers always wind up designing the vehicle to look like the initial artist's concept.
DataPacRat (Daniel Eliot Boese) commissioned Varus to illustrate his vision of a superfreighter. As you can see from the link, DataPacRat has done his homework. Which should come as no surprise coming from the man dubbed the 'Star Lord' by the developers of
Master of Orion 3. Please note how the heat radiators are cut at an angle so they stay within the cone of protection cast by the anti-radiation shadow shield on the drive.
Love-class Superfreighter
From left to right in image: Non-aerodynamic lander; containerized
cargo; small heat radiators for hab section; main comm antenna; a pair
of counter-rotating sections, each with three inflatable habitat
modules, housing 8 crew; the main boom and radiators, with tanks for
water-propellant inside the boom; and the main drive.
Seeking to escape the dangerous political and economic situation near
Earth, the Bayesian Nakama have started a colonization project in the
Vestoid asteroids; they designed and built these craft to serve as
their workhorse vessels. Several other vehicles are part of the same
system: a non-aerodynamic lander, an aerodynamic lander and
atmospheric scooper, and some low-efficiency nuclear and solar steam
rockets to slowly ferry water where needed.
The inital model used for the first trips, the SF-0 "Zip", had a
somewhat different drive configuration than became standard. Once it
was rebuilt with the new manufacturing processes available on the
V-type asteroids, it was redesignated the SF-1 "Love". The next ships
sharing the design were the SF-2 "Unity", SF-3 "Imagination", SF-4
"Napier", SF-5 "Ludolph", and SF-6 "Euler". Almost entirely to annoy
bureaucrats, the builders give the landers absurd serial numbers -
279641170620168673833 and 350247984153525417450, Skewes' number
(eee79), Alef-theta, Moser, Graham's number, a Busy Beaver number,
the Avogadro, etc.
The main vessel's mass is 135 tonnes; the maximum rated cargo mass is
440 tonnes; and a typical fuel mass is 240 tonnes. The main thruster
is an antiproton-catalyzed microfission design; in its high-thrust
mode, it can be active 5% of the time, or 450 hours per year. Its
thrust in this mode is 25.6 kiloNewtons, generating 180 km/sec of
delta-vee per year, using 244 tonnes of water as propellant to do so.
The standard propellant tank is an inflatable 40-tonne bag of water
with a diameter of 4.25 meters when full.
The main thruster reacts anti-ice with lead or depleted uranium, used
to create pions to induce sub-critial masses of Lithium-6 to
spontaneously microfission. The heat is pumped away by a
magnetocaloric refrigerator, which is powered by a Farnsworth-Bussard
fusor.
The crew is protected from cosmic radiation by a charged plasma with a
high electrical potential (10 GeV), a storm shelter for periods of
high radiation, and water propellant tanks are used to shield them
from the drive's emissions.
The standard Love-class ship contains two mining tools, which can be
repurposed for military use when necessary: a He-Ar laser powered by
curium microfission bombs, and a wakefield e-beam — this latter can
also serve as a backup thruster, heating any available mass similarly
to an arcjet, with a thrust of 4.6 kiloNewtons and an Isp of 2,000
seconds.
The aerodynamic lander contains an atmospheric scoop, which allows it
to collect propellant by skimming through at atmosphere, compressing
and storing 720 kg/hr. Both landers contain a Kuck mosquito for mining
water from icy comets or D-type asteroids, and use an H-B fusion
reciprocating plasmoid thruster. This thruster can also be used to
push the entire superfreighter; while its Isp is only 460 seconds, its
thrust is 3.2 megaNewtons, allowing the lander to push 200 tonnes of
fuel at 1.36 gravities.
The final vessels in this vehicle series are steam rockets; the "Water
Nymphs" are nuclear-heated, and the "Water Slides" are solar-powered.
Both use engines of astonishingly low efficiency — Isp of 198 seconds
— but due to the simplicity and low mass, turn out to be the most
economical for the task, assuming reasonably unlimited water.
Mike Billard
Mike Billard is an engineer who is learning the art of 3D CGI graphics. The YF-19A Saber is a hypothetical outgrowth of the 1960's Dyna Soar project. Of course, the engineering detail are meticulous. He can be found on the SciFi Meshes forum under the handle Mikey-B.
In the last four images below, the black X-20 mesh was created by an artist named Burncycle for the space simulation Orbiter.
Mr. Billard is currently working on images for his fictional "Wild Blue Industries" rocket company. He says "Think Space X meets
Bigelow Aerospace." He has done a bit of research into rocket science to define the performance parameters of the Appaloosa with Charger engines.
William Black
Artist's Statement
These are space craft and missions that might have been: For every crewed mission that has flown there are hundreds of conceptual designs and mission plans that never reached the hardware stage. I wanted to capture and depict in as realistic a manner as possible how these systems would have looked, and, where possible, I have included for comparison NASA artist conceptual drawings and diagrams.
Artist's Bio
William Black is a native of the Midwest, born January 15, 1964. Now retired after a professional career in the printing industry, currently William Black is working with coauthor Darrell Wollert in the production of a three volume science fiction future history. The Orion's Arm stories tell the tale of human kind's expansion through this arm of the galaxy and are centered on a solar system wide civilization based on spacecraft propulsion technology with its origins in Orion style pulsed plasma atomic rockets.
His Patreon campaign can be found here.
His Deviantart page can be found here. More information on the Orion's Arm future history project
can be found here.
Images
All images created using Bryce 6 and Poser 7, post-production work in Photoshop.
Today 5apr2011 Artist Black gifted me with a new selection of his artwork. As you can see he has only gotten better with time.
Adam Burch
stunning images can be found on SciFi Meshes. He has studied this website while designing his ship.
The Cerberus Class Frigate was designed as an Air Force operated, armed multi- purpose deep space vehicle. Ships operate as part of the Deep Space Command network and carry out scientific, military, law-enforcement, transport and errand-of-mercy missions throughout the solar system.
The ship consists of a forward sensor module, crew module, a variable number of fuel modules and a reactor and propulsion module.
The name "Cerberus" denotes both the multi-mission capability of the spacecraft, as well as the physical resemblance of the mythical three headed dog formed by the forward radome, railgun and forward operations module protruding forward from the crew section.
The forward sensor module consists of a suite of extremely powerful digitally scanned array radar apertures housed in a ballistic-protective aeroshell, as well as housing various multi-spectrum optical trackers. While radar capabilities and ranges remain classified, it is widely accepted that the radar arrays can isolate millimeter sized objects at several tens of kilometers away. Forward radar capabilities are augmented by secondary arrays that project aft and perpendicular.
The crew section consists of one half of a pair of tetrahedral "blades" mounted to the central axis of the ship. The ship's CIC, Crew Hab, Airlock, Operations Deck and Gravity Module are mounted between 0 and 45 meters from the ship's central axis between a sandwich of kinetic and radiation shielding. When the ship is spun on it's axis, 1g can be maintained in the extreme interior surface of the upper gravity module at only 6 rpm, more than adequate for a military trained crew.
The opposite blade houses a magazine of kinetic projectiles and missiles that can be launched from a pair of forward/aft facing railguns. Interception ranges vary with target capabilities and maneuverability, but the guns have enough power to provide hyperbolic orbits given the right launch circumstances. The autoloader, magazine and guns comprise the bulk of the "Tactical Blade". Projectiles range from unguided tungsten rounds to multi stage guided-chemical rockets. Nuclear weapons are only carried with the direct authorization of the President of the United States as a political consideration, but are generally unnecessary given the destructive capabilities of the kinetic and energy weapons mounted aboard the ship.
Blade modules also house water and oxygen tanks, with loads pumped between blades to maintain center of gravity as crew move between upper (zero g) and lower (gravity) modules during spin. Each Cerberus "head" is assembled on Luna and launched into low lunar orbit via industrial magrail.
The fuel modules actually consist of four tanks centered around a multi-line structural spine housed within a hexagonal ballistic shell. External hard points on the fuel modules frequently house radiator modules or Autonomous Kill or Re-entry Vehicles too large to fit inside the missile magazine. Modules can be jettisoned and re-docked utilizing either the ship's RCS thrusters or robotic arm. Six or more modules provide enough propellant to reach Mars in an average of just under two months (during windows of close approach), the average local Jupiter mission will mount eight or more for added security.
The spine formed by the fuel modules also houses a track for the Remote Manipulator Arm, providing manipulator access to 100% of the exterior surface of the ship.
The nuclear propulsion and thrust module houses a 4 Triton-Class Oxygen Afterburning Nuclear Propulsion Units and two Hermes Liquid Oxygen/Hydrogen Chemical rockets for high-response tactical maneuvering. A single Hermes unit is also mounted on the tactical blade for emergency maneuvering. 4 large folding, gimbaled radiators can be deployed perpendicular to the ship's axis for additional heat dissipation. An RCS and gyro array provide rapid maneuvering capability.
In addition to the ship's offensive armament, Cerberus Class Frigates also mount an array of laser turrets for meteor and KEW point defense. Coupled with the ship's radar and battle management computers, Cerberus Frigates can be flown by just one crew member, though normal crew compliment can range between 6 and 14. The first ship was launched in 2123, and are projected upgrades and life extension programs will allow the crew modules to remain in the inventory until at least 2250.
Ships are named for various USAF, USN and USCG Rescue and Pararescue Members, emphasizing their space-rescue capabilities. On December 18, 2130, the USS Rowland Rainey suffered a direct collision when a glitch in the ship's battle management array failed to detect and allowed a 4m ferrous-iron asteroid fired from an unregulated Chinese space mining operation to collide with the ship. The ship suffered little damage and no casualties, a testament to the Frigates' survivability.
Rob Caswell
Artist's Statement
Born shortly before Alan Shepard became America’s first
man in space, Rob Caswell grew up saturated in enticing visions of the “coming
space age”. His imagination was fueled not only by the real world astronautic
happenings, but also by the art and fiction of the time, with shows like Space
Angel, Fireball XL-5, Thunderbirds, and later, Star Trek. He was inclined towards pursuing art, but the
educational establishment of the time devalued that in favor of science and
engineering careers. This led him to a degree in physics and astronomy, though
once he had paper in hand the art world called him back. So his SF art has
always been guided by real world engineering concerns.
His professional art career began in the RPG field, most
notably doing illustrations for Traveller. He was also on the editorial staff
at Digest Group Publications, creator of licensed Traveller products. He worked
on many other games in the 80’s and early 90’s including West End’s “Star Wars”
and FASA’s “Star Trek: The Next Generation Technical Manual”.
Currently he works as a digital printing professional and
periodically creates interior tech illustrations for SF novels, most notably in
works by Allen Steele and Rob Sawyer. In 2006 he fell into the digital medium
and has created a vast catalog of imagery based primarily on pre-existing model
designs. He has contributed a number of podcasts to 3D Art Direct.
I'm not just a rocket science geek wanna-be, you know. In college I earned a degree in fine arts, so I'm actually also a species of artist. My on-line portfolio is here, more images are here, but below are my more technologically accurate images.
Pat Flannery
Image 1: Bow
Image 2: Titan lander
Image 3: Space tug
Image 4: Gangway
Pat Flannery's works his magic with plastic models instead of computer graphics. The results are exceptional, and quite scientifically accurate. This is the NASA/ESA DISCOVERY, which was featured on the Starship Modeling website.
Take two MPC "Pilgrim Observer" kits,add four Revell "Space Operations Center"kits,two plastic "snowball" paperweights,some Micromachines,four bicycle reflectors, one model railway bridge,a Monogram "Orient Express",some Christmas tree ornaments, PVC pipe and a large iron rod.Pour in about 1/4 cup super glue and 1 cup assorted paints...shake well! Presto! One six foot three inch long model of a ion / fission drive space craft for the exploration of Saturn; in 1/144 scale, complete with crewed landers for Titan riding on aeroshells,loads of atmospheric probes, crewed landers for the smaller moons, a space tug, two EVA pods, and a transatmospheric vehicle. Also a real headache to move and clean. (you get a soft brush,lather the model up with thinned down dish soap, and take it into the shower!) Ship is the NASA/ESA DISCOVERY , 900 feet long and carrying a crew of 25 on a six year mission. Someday I'll build the nuclear pulse stage to boost it out of Earth orbit.
The top overall side view shows (Left to Right): bridge/command center,living quarters,atmosphere/water recycling and storage, docking and cargo area, more living quarters, avionics area, three slush hydrogen tanks, EVA crew low G acclimatization area, hanger bays for probes and landers, Titan landers, heavy fission powered lander, three aft slush hydrogen tanks, aft fuel and oxidizer tanks, nucleonic engineering area (uncrewed when nuclear motors running), radiation shield, closed cycle nuclear/electric power supply, three laminar flow fission engines and three auxiliary isotope electrical generators. The centrally mounted ion engines are used in cruise flight; the fission motors to enter and leave the orbit of Saturn, so as to minimize radiation exposure to the ship from Saturn's magnetosphere - the ship orbits Saturn in the Cassini division of the rings where the radiation is low. Four truss structures extend in a X arrangement from amidships- these support carbon fiber cables to rigidize the ships structure. The de-spun ion motor arrays also carry telescopes, communication antennae and synthetic imaging radar. The ion arrays are capable of sliding fore and aft on tracks so as to maintain a central position on the ship despite changes of position of axis due to depletion of consumables.
The view from front (Image 1) shows the bridge (foreground), four living quarter and two food/supply arms extended in ship spinup position (the whole ship rotates around center when under ion drive, for "artificial gravity"), upper de-spun ion motors, the "gangway" to the transatmospheric vehicle which folds down unto the DISCOVERY in flight, and the red (hydrazine) and green (nitrogen tetroxide) tanks for the smaller ships that are carried.
The close up of the amidships section (Image 2) shows the Titan lander staging area with the landers riding on there "surfboard" heat shields, and to the right the heavy fission powered lander with its surface rovers for landings on the smaller moons. Orange objects are micrometeorite protective covers to shield the windows in transit to Saturn.
The next shot (Image 3) is a close up of nuclear space tug on opposite side of ship from picture 4-space tug and heavy lander are same design modified to perform different missions;space tug is on loan from USAF,who know a doozy of a photo op when they see it. (Air Force space tug silhouetted against Saturn-"THE SKY IS NO LIMIT..."). Hydrogen tanks are mounted 1top,1bottom,1port on forepart of ship and 1top,1bottom,1starboard on the aft part of ship.
The bottom picture (Image 4) shows two astronauts EVA'ing to help dock the supply shuttle to the gangway ( the shuttle is not carried to Saturn) This is for scale comparison.
Zach Hajj
Artist's Statement
This is part of my attempt to develop a basis for an interstellar civilization, its massive economy and similarly vast scale of war. Above all, I hope this serves as a statement that it is possible to combine the flashy and the scientific, that hard science-fiction can be fantastic and not necessarily bland."
Artist Zach Hajj (a.k.a. Zerraspace) is another one of the precious few artists who also have vast scientific knowledge. I am happy that this website helped give him the raw data he needed for his work. For the technical details about this spacecraft, see its entry in the Realistic Designs section.
Juho Kesala
Artist Juho Kesälä is a long time fan of this website, and uses it ensure the reality of the artwork.
Artist Statement:
My scifi setting originated and still serves as a vehicle for
storytelling, art and gaming, but I've also found worldbuilding in on
itself an enjoyable pursuit. One of the things I like to do is design
spacecraft with some level of realism. I strive to keep things at
least physically plausible with the fairly significant exception of
faster-than-light travel. Call it hard scifi space opera, if that's
not too much of an oxymoron. Much of my inspiration for these designs
comes from setting myself design constraints and then coming up with
ideas to satisfy them.
In terms of artistic influence I'd have to
mention Homeworld.
Currently all this stuff exists mostly in my head, a few story and
gaming related projects, and a folder on my computer. Though the
worldbuilding isn't collected anywhere online
I do have a Tumblr and a DeviantArt
account where I'll post my artwork.
EASTZONE-CLASS CORVETTE
click for larger image
detail
detail
Rendered with only specular lighting, and a lamp placed at same location as the rendering "camera."
The result is an image similar to an active sensor scan, what you'd get when the captain says "Get me a visual!"
Big. Predatory. Tactically lit to hide its unfinished state. (i.e., a work-in-progress)
You can find Mr. Lanesskog gallery here. He does his work using Bryce 6.3, importing human figures from Poser or DAZ Studio, and using Paint Shop Pro for post-production.
The Trans Mars Injection stage and the Exploration Stack. Click for more details.
Archimedes class explorer. Click for more details.
Archimedes class explorer blueprint. Click for more details.
Thule class explorer. Click for more details.
Thule class explorer blueprint. Click for more details.
The Luoshuan was the third crewed spacecraft to make it to Mars, but the first to return. Click for more details.
The Cityship Atlantis represented the height of fusion era technology just after the Last World War. Click for more details.
During the dive through Mars's thin atmosphere, the astronauts and vehicle will experience forces approach five times Earth gravity as the vehicle slows enough to enter a transfer orbit toward the moon Phobos. Click for more details.
Illustration of a story for Writers of the Future Volume XXIII. Click for more details.
The Leonov project
Artists Rob Caswell (Arcas-Art) and Tom Peters (Drell-7) are big fans of Sir Arthur C. Clarke's novel 2010: Odyssey Two. However they have long be dissatisfied with the depiction of the spacecraft Leonov in the movie version. One fine day they decided to do something about it.
The visual appearance of the Jupiter-bound Leonov from
Arthur C. Clarke’s 2010 has become almost carved in stone by the Syd Mead
designed craft that appeared in the 1984 film by Peter Hyams. However for us
hardcore Clarke fans, the picture of the Leonov was painted over two years
earlier when we first read Clarke’s novel. While the book and film’s plots are
very similar in the broad strokes, there are a number of differences between
the two and the design of the Leonov is one of them.
Clarke’s notes on the Leonov are relatively sparse, but
clear enough to define a vision that is not what we saw in the movie. The
novel’s craft is smaller in size (“Apart from the four huge propellant tanks
that would be dropped off as soon as transfer orbit was achieved. From heat
shield to drive units was less that fifty meters.”), it has a heat shield
instead of an inflatable ballute, there’s no spin-gravity centrifuge, and it
does not support its own EVA pods. It was built for speed to beat Discovery II
to the goal and as such was designed with an economy of mass to maximize
propulsion.
So from the start of the project, or goal in creating the
book’s version of the Leonov was to design a craft that [A] fits Clarke’s
written details, [B] looks Russian in aerospace design (while Mead’s craft was
a cool cinematic creation, it didn’t look very Russian in shape and
coloration), [C] fits in with both the technology of what we saw in Kurbrick’s
2001 while still being something that looks like it could have been flying in
2010, [D] was designed on relatively proven science and technology.
The greatest piece of technical fiction in Clarke’s design
was probably the Leonov’s Sakarov drive. The key to the Leonov’s ability to get
to Jupiter so quickly, the drive is not described in much detail. It is an
invention ascribed to the brilliant physicist Andrei Sakarov, capable of
sustaining 1/10th of a
gravity of thrust for a prolonged period.
The sparse description of the drive’s working led us to
believe it was some sort of plasma drive, along the same lines as the VASIMR
drive being developed by Franklin Chang Díaz currently. The drive is described
as very compact, and its power source as having very low radioactivity. We
assumed a magnetohydrodynamic system to
generate the electrical power for the drive and the Leonov’s other systems. At the distances involved in a mission to
Jupiter, solar panels would be either too large and unwieldy, or too
inefficient in their power collection to be viable as an energy source.
With our design criteria established we decided to begin by
having both of us do some design roughs without sharing our thoughts in
advance. Oddly enough (or not) when we compared results we found we both were
taking the design in the same general direction, so this was both confirming
that we were on a good path and it smoothed the process of refining the design.
Tom did all the actual modeling in Lightwave, but the design
process was fully cooperative. Every day of so we’d review the current status
together and refine the design. This led to a number of features that we hadn’t
planned from the outset but grew out of the necessities emerging from the
growing design. This included thing like the retractable radiators for the
drive section and the pivoting communications/sensor booms, allowing them all
to be folded in behind the shadow of the heat shield for aerobraking.
The whole project took about 6-8 weeks and the resulting
design is one that is quite mission-specific. The illustration sequence we’ve
done so far shows how the ship changes its configuration as the mission
proceeds, with the most notable events being the jettisoning of the huge fuel
tanks used in the initial boost and the ejection of the heat shield after the
Jovian aerobraking. As with real space missions like Apollo, what returns to
Earth is considerable less massive than what left."
Michael McGuire is a master model-maker. For Starship Modeler's 2002 contest "Space Racer", Mr. McGuire was inspired by Lester del Rey's short story "Habit" (1939), about a rocket race from Mars to close Jupiter fly-by and back. Needless to say Mr. McGuire won the modeling contest.
I love how he caught that rocketpunk aesthetic. The spacecraft looks like a cross between Star Wars and a World War 2 bomber. The hatches revealing the engine were a nice touch, and the cockpit is a work of art.
Daniel McIlvaney
Daniel McIlvaney's impressive artwork can be found on SciFi Meshes, where he goes by the handle "TheUnlogicalOne". The first set of images are of a patrol ship, and second is of a destroyer. Mr. McIlvaney hastens to add that these are all works-in-progress, not finished works.
An early version of Tero Niemi's interplanetary battleship.
A more detailed version, with a missile rack.
Tero Niemi is a freelance Graphic Designer, 3D-Technician, Artist, Writer, Computer Programmer, Zero-G Pilot (Licensed), and Webmaster from Finland.
General Notes
1) Most of the ships mass is centered on the reactor/fuel section. This section is jointed (gimballed?), so the ship can control it's attitude very quickly without any thrusters.
2) Radiators fold in when the ship gets "scared". (Impact eminent.) During this period the heat control can be done by venting some of the coolant directly into vacuum. (Vented gas could be used as IR decoy?)
3) The camouflage shield is a bit controversial. I imagined it to be made from a very thin and reflective substance that can be cooled to a very low temperature. The idea was that ship could be near "invisible" into one direction. That is enough because of the limited speed of light. No point to hide, except for near targets that can hurt.
No idea about weapons. This is probably a missile platform. Pellet cannon perhaps, or even a laser. A bag of (preheated?) nails to throw at incoming rockets?
Systems
1) The reaction control system (thrusters) are poorly positioned (or angled) if the bomb part weights nearly as much as the engine part.
There are basically two ways to fix this. First would be to use Apollo style thrusters on sides. Those things point forward/aft and they work fine near center of the mass, no problem. Second way would be moving the whole thruster section to the nose of the ship. Sideways pointing thrusters work there fine and I think that would be more efficient.
I modelled the missile this way because I wanted to keep the shape clean. Nozzle bell -- lot of junk -- and a bomb. Poor excuse, I know :) but it is low poly model so I think it is Ok to cheat a bit for clarity...
2) Sensors are quite limited. The poor thing is practically blind! Angle of view should probably be something like 340 degrees instead of current 120. That would mean installing some sort of larger sensor pack in the front, but again, clean shape -- and I'm going to render these from rear angle, so any sensor details are actually wasted.
Unicornis family of spacecraft, all packed together.
The Unicornis unpacked into its component spacecraft.
Number 6
Number 6's awesome artwork can be found on SciFi Meshes, where he goes by the handle, well, "Number 6". The first set of images are of a Short Ranged Ship Concept, inspired by Werner von Braun's Moonship. The second is a recreation of the Discovery II.
Short Ranged Ship Concept
Discovery II
Tom Peters
Artist's Statement
A good visual science fiction story can be both engaging and firmly rooted in realism and realistic extrapolation about the technology and visual style of future hardware. You don't have to choose between the two.
Charles Oines is an emergency stunt artist who has been producing game-related digital artwork since 1990 for a variety of high-profile game companies. Do go check out his portfolio. The artwork displayed below was created for the game Attack Vector: Tactical.
The spherical mesh is a species of fusion drive, the spikes are propulsion system heat radiators. The rectangular vanes are the power reactor and weapon system heat radiators. The forward part of the propulsion system is a lead and concrete radiation shadow shield.
Recently, Mr. Oines has mastered the art of creating 3D meshes suitable for rapid prototyping. He now offers a selection of starship miniatures suitable for starship wargames from his print-on-demand ship.
Al-Rafik class frigate. The "arms" are to carry auxiliary craft.
The Lafayette signals surrender by extending its heat radiators
A Wasp class frigate.
Marnix Rekkers
Marnix Rekkers is a hot young concept artist who has worked for quite a few clients, currently with Hades 9 and Impeller Studios. His eye for scientific details is very sharp.
TITAN BREAKER click for larger image
TITAN BREAKER click for larger image
HECATORNCHIERE CARRIER click for larger image
HECATORNCHIERE CARRIER click for larger image
HECATORNCHIERE CARRIER click for larger image
ARCHIMEDES II RESOURCE HARVESTER click for larger image
ARCHIMEDES II RESOURCE HARVESTER click for larger image
ARCHIMEDES II RESOURCE HARVESTER click for larger image
ORBITAL GUARD CUTTER click for larger image
ORBITAL GUARD CUTTER click for larger image
ORBITAL GUARD CUTTER click for larger image
Nick Stevens
Noted space artist Nick Stevens has a meticulous attention to historical details. He is currently on the board of the International Association of Astronomical Artists. You might have noticed his artwork in various places on this website, illustrating spacecraft designs.
Video explaining Medusa, click to play video clip
B. P. Taylor
B. P. Taylor is an expert model scratchbuilder. His Luna Corporation Cargo Shuttle won the Gold Award at Wonderfest 2004 for best Vehicle/Mecha.
As his graduation project he design and provided concepts for a hypothetical virtual reality game. The player is put in charge of a huge logistic ship delivering payload to a Jupiter space station. The ship and related designs were researched by Mr. van Welbergen using NASA technical documents.
Video clip overview of spacecraft click to play video