The Art and Graphics of Nick Stevens. Available for hire.I specialise in unbuilt space projects, and the spacecraft of the Soviet Union.
My new work in progress.
This is the Ariane 1 rocket. I’m using a bought mesh for the geometry. It was converted from 3D studio, and is VERY heavy on the polygon count. But the good news is that the detail is superb, even the internal structure of the stringers is modeled.
Surfaces did not come in very clean, so I’m working through them to get them a bit more realistic. Still a long way to go with that.
Continue reading “Ariane 1 Rocket”
This is an alternate design for the ship “Discovery” from the film 2001. In my view it is much inferior to the final version, but this is interesting. This one tends to self-shadow a lot for one thing, which makes it difficult to light. But note that the habitation sphere is identical to the final version used in the film – this element was about the only constant factor in the many design changes.
It is based on sketches in Chris Frayling’s excellent book “The 2001 Files”, and my version incorporates elements from several sketches.
I also did a turntable video of it, to show off the shape.
From other sketches it is clear that there are 48 fuel tanks just under the widest part of the vehicle.
Continue reading “Unused Space Odyssey Design Concept, Discovery Bowl Version”
Now working on alternate unused designs for the 2001 Discovery, of which there were many. This one is fairly close to the finished version, but had added tension cables (helpful), and large cooling vanes (essential).
The vanes can tip – this would presumably be so they can stay edge on to the Sun, to avoid overheating.
Credible design for the craft like “Discovery” in “2001, A Space Odyssey” was considered very important, but the cooling vanes looked too much like wings, and were therefore dropped.
Continue reading “Latest WIP, more alternate “2001 A Space Odyssey” designs.”
Daedalus was a serious design by the British Interplanetary Society, for an interstellar flyby mission that would reach Barnard’s Star in 50 years.
There’s some more info in this video I made:
Here’s a BIS page on the project:
http://www.bis-space.com/what-we-do/projects/project-daedalus
And another nice article by David Darling.
http://www.daviddarling.info/encyclopedia/D/Daedalus.html
Continue reading “Daedalus – A serious starship design”
Pioneer 11 was the first probe to reach Jupiter and Saturn. It is not often remembered, I think because of Voyager 1 and 2 followed on relatively quickly, and these probes delivered much superior imagery.
But Pioneer 11 was important, not least because it established if it would be safe to send the voyagers very close to the giant planets – the amount of radiation and debris near them was not clear before the encounters.
My favourite film, without a doubt is the stunning “2001 A Space Odyssey”. Even all these years after its release, it still manages to look credible and futuristic.
I have now finished the model of the alternate design for the 2001 Space Station. This mesh is based on sketches in the excellent book “The 2001 File” by Christopher Frayling. The bulk of the book is the design sketches by Harry Lange that were done for the spacecraft concepts used in the film.
The sketches were basic, so I added lots of details from the design actually used in the film.
I’ve also made a short animated video to show it off, I recommend watching in HD if possible!
Continue reading “2001 A Space Odyssey – Alternate Space Station Design.”
This is a (very) short documentary I made on the British rocket, the Black Arrow. The UK remains the only country ion the world to develop a successful satellite program, and then shut it down.
The model I built for the video was based on personal photographs taken at the London Science Museum.
I am gradually moving my videos over to Vimeo, they get less views there than at YouTube, but the quality is higher, and you won’t get interrupted by crappy adverts!
This is something I am still working on. It’s an alternate design for the famous Wheel Station, much more disk-like.
All the outer sections will be completely replaced, I’m still trying out ideas here. The design is based on “The 2001 File”, the Harry Lange archive.
I don’t intend to get the viewpoint as close as is shown in the near image.
The hub is pretty much the same as the ends of the core as used in the original film. The dark ribs on the inside of the outer sections will have to go too.
Kuck’s Mosquito is a design for a craft that would mine water from asteroids, comets, or maybe the moons of Mars. The delta-V required is MUCH less than hauling it up from Earth to orbit.
It would work by drilling down into ice, melting it, then sucking up the liquid. The water can then be used for drinking, or could be split into Hydrogen and Oxygen.
A small project, the parts storage area from the “Discovery” in “2001”.
Modelled and rendered in Lightwave 3d, I released the mesh for free to members of the “Foundation 3d” forums.
