Here’s a design for a seriously large fusion rocket.
I started with information for on the always excellent Project Rho site, by Winchell Chung. This refers to an earlier NASA paper.
Hedrick Fusion Rocket
Category: spacecraft
Soyuz Capsule Mesh
No updates for a while, but there are some new one to go in!
I recently bought a Russian Soyuz capsule mesh on TurboSquid. The textures didn’t really come in at all, (not unusual in my experience), but it was fairly straightforward to apply new ones, as surfaces were sensibly named. I was also really pleased to see that the orange seams were done with geometry!
Here are a couple of new renders, where I composited the mesh over Earth, using NASA photos taken from the ISS.
As usual, all of this is done in Lightwave 3D.
Mercury Redstone Rocket – Nearly done?
After some work on the base, (thanks to better references), cutting details into the lower hull, and adding a reflection gradient on the paint, I think this one may be done… The Mercury Redstone definitely fills a gap in my historic rockets line up.
It feels like I am on a bit of a roll with the rockets recently!
Now I just need to make some final renders to wrap things up.
Redstone Rocket
Cosmonauts exhibition at the London Science Museum
Various photos…
Here’s a selection of photos from the “Cosmonauts” exhibition at the London Science Museum.
Laika
This shows the arrangement used for for the ‘space dog’ Laika. Laika (meaning “little woofer”), was a stray found on the streets of Moscow. The scientists later said that what they learned was not worth the life of a dog.
Spacesuits
On the left is the suit proposed for exploring Mars, and on the right the “Orlan” EVA space suit. Continue reading “Cosmonauts exhibition at the London Science Museum”
Soviet LK Moon lander
The London Science Museum “Cosmonauts” exhibition had some truly amazing original space hardware from the dawn of the space age. For me the clear highlight was the LK Lander, their equivalent of the Apollo LEM.
The lighting was coloured which made getting the colour right a bit tricky!
This was a one man craft, and the cosmonaut (probably Alexei Leonov), would have had to stay in his pace suit the whole time.
This view is from directly in front, and you can see the window the cosmonaut would use to see where his craft was headed as it came in to land. On the right is the round antenna, (with a star on), used to communicate.
Here you see the right side of the lander. Note the blue hatch, and the ladder underneath it. Continue reading “Soviet LK Moon lander”
Mercury Capsule, Render 2
And here’s another render of the Mercury capsule, over a NASA photograph of Earth.
As usual, all done in Lightwave 3d
Mercury capsule, texturing and clean-up
I’m currently sorting out surfaces for this Mercury capsule. But even so I thought it was good enough for a first shot at a finished render…
For those who don’t know, (is there anyone?) the Mercury program was the USA’s first manned spaceflight project, with a capsule capable of holding a single astronaut. The first few launches were sub-orbital. Astronaut control was limited, leading to Chuck Yaeger’s famous remark that the pilots were more like “spam in a can”.
It was a difficult time, as the US struggled to catch up with the early lead set by the Soviet Union.
And here are some more basic renders too.
Ariane 1, texturing continues.
I’ve been working on surfacing the Ariane 1 rocket, and I think it’s nearly there. I found a few problems where the textures were rotated with reference to the geometry,
Some of the rings on the payload fairing are not quite right, but I am finding it hard to work out how to correct them.
Above is an orthographic set. (Perspective free) Continue reading “Ariane 1, texturing continues.”
HD Test animation of the Ariane rocket WIP
Just checking how things are coming along, from all angles. Textures still need some work I think!
Ariane 1 Rocket
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.
