Category: Software

Key software used to make the image

As Philip K Dick said…

An older image, which I thought I would revive for this blog.

headcase-again

“It is sometimes an appropriate response to reality to go insane.”

Philip K Dick

The setting and two bots are by StoneMason, and exported from Daz software. The head is by Ten-Twenty Four studios. Head case by me, as was the scene, lighting, and so forth, which was done in Lightwave 3d.

I often struggle with characters even in a basic way, and even more when I try and get some sense of story into an image. This is one of very few with a human figure I am happy with.

Finding a relevant quotation from PKD really was the icing on the cake, as I am a huge admirer of his work.

Nick

GIRD X – 1930’s Rocket by Soviet Group for the Study of Jet Propulsion

In the 1930’s the Soviet Union set up a group to study rocket propulsion, GIRD. (Lots more good info about it here!)

One member of the group was Sergey Korolov, who went on to become the chief designer, and mastermind behind all the early Soviet space firsts.

This rocket is the GIRD-X, the tenth project the group carried out.

SI-73-7133hThere’s only really one good photo, and Russian museum items have so many obvious errors, they are useless for reference. So the finer details in this model are somewhat speculative. (Though I think there are clearly some ridges and wider sections not shown in other plans or models I have found).

gird-x-bigx Continue reading “GIRD X – 1930’s Rocket by Soviet Group for the Study of Jet Propulsion”

VASIMR – HOPE

I realised I have very little that covers more recent concepts to get man into deep space. And when I started digging, I found there were not that many out there to cover!

The main one is the various designs covered by HOPE. Human Outer Planet Exploration, which covers proposals for a manned mission to Callisto, the outermost major moon of Jupiter.

It uses VASIMR nuclear engines, which are under current development, so as far as feasibility goes, I’d say highly feasible apart from the cost aspect.

VASIMR stands for:

Variable Specific Impulse Magnetoplasma Rocket

and it’s a highly promising propulsion system.

The huge vanes are the cooling system, very reminiscent of Ernst Stuhlingers designs of many years ago. They come to a point to stay behind the heavy radiation shields, either side of the reactors.

backdrop Continue reading “VASIMR – HOPE”

More work on the 1958 Lockheed shuttle design

I was struggling a bit with a colour scheme for the main rocket – how to do something period, that fits with the orange and black shuttle?

Here’s how it’s coming along.

hull-1 Continue reading “More work on the 1958 Lockheed shuttle design”

Rogue planet

One thing I often feel I have difficulty is depicting things out in interstellar space, or other scenarios were it is seriously dark. Not least because with a realistic view, it would be too dark to see anything.

Here’s my latest attempt, showing a rogue planet, cast loose from it’s parent star.

between-starsAstronomers seem to be growing towards this having happened early in the hostory of our own solar system, with a 5th gas giant being ejected early in it’s history.

Also note I am using the whole sky environments of our night sky, as mentioned a couple of posts ago.