Some finished renders of the Hyperion, Phil Bono’s SSTO design.
This view has some perspective, and I have added a figure for scale.
The Hyperion coasting over Earth.
And another view at orbital altitude.
Here are some perspective free views, two with the legs down, and two with the legs up. Note that I also added a small human figure for scale in the bottom left!
As usual, all this was done in Lightwave 3d.
Nice.
Is it just me or does that look like a large version of the Dragon v2 from SpaceX? The Dv2 seems to be designed to land and take-off from Mars, which with it’s thinner atmosphere and lower surface gravity requires a lot less dV to reach orbit.
I see what you mean – though the scale is way differenT!
Now, over at Mark Wade’s site, is a drawing of a lenticular HLLV, as compared to winged TSTO designs and ROOST, if I remember correctly.
Could you flesh that out for us.
Something else I was thinking about.
The concept of rockets AS payloads
We have seen Columbia and Buran type orbiters—but I have a third type in mind.
I always liked the External Tank derived space station concepts, which also deserve some art.
And then, I got to thinking about a better way to go about it.
Imagine an External Tank with liquid hydrogen only. No exposed foam, but covered.
The payload goes atop this, and can be as wide or wider as the ET.
The payload can be a Kankoh Maru type.
The unmanned orbiter is what has the oxidizer tank…maybe nitrogen tetroxide for density.
This orbiter has small OMS pods, but no payload bay.
The payload can be something like big Gemini, with an upper section that can have an escape tower, unlike Starship.
Now, I hope Starship super heavy does work…I really do.
But a stage and a half to orbit system that allows low density hydrogen tanks to be wet-workshops means you DON’T have to cover said tankage with heat shields and landing legs.
Each time you launch a payload, you get a station segment.
That is a different path to reusability than Musk is taking.
Don’t get hung up on getting all the rocket back. Instead, deposit floor space for factories.
That might also be an art project for you…
—-publiusr