The Art and Graphics of Nick Stevens. Available for hire.I specialise in unbuilt space projects, and the spacecraft of the Soviet Union.
Spacecraft concepts that were never fully developed
Right! The space cruiser is now done. I struggled a bit with the nose until I decided to make it a dome, and then added the spike, and the scallopped textures around it.
These renders are deliberately not done in a very realistic style. To be specific:
It occured to me that I really don’t remember ever seeing one of those really old pulp SF cover space cruisers done in a modern CGI style. You know, the ones that look like a cross between a Zepellin and an express steam train:
Now added a video. complete with soundtrack, to showcase the mesh and the concept!
Continue reading “Video for the Krafft Erhike Space Station concept.”
This is a design by Kraft Ehrike, which appeared in “Life” magazine in 1958. From what I understand, the idea was to use the kind of cylindrical hulls and spherical ended tanks from upper rocket stages as basic units of contruction.
Ehrike worked with Wernher von Braun at Peenemunde on the V2 rocket program, and continued to work with WvB after they had moved to the USA.
Continue reading “Krafft Ehrike – 1958 Space Station design”
This is a design that was considered for the (much) later Long Stay Apollo missions, where the LEM would be on the Moon for a long time. And there were concerns about reliability.
So they came up with a light weight design that would be a few bits strapped together, to get the astronauts up into munar orbit, where the command module might be able to rendezvous with them.
But it would not have been needed for the cancelled missions, and the ones beyond that were not studied in any great detail, so the design was not taken any further.
There are some interesting variations described on Wikpedia here:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lunar_Escape_Systems
I did all the custom graphics for this book, and am waiting for my copy to arrive.
It is about getting the cost of reaching orbit down to a managable level, and the history of how we have got here. It includes an extensive history or space exploration.
And there’s a considerable amount about the non-rotating skyhook, which was the focus of my graphics work.
I am particularly pround of the video, which shows a complete mission. This includes how a craft would rendezvour with the lower end of the skyhook, and get haulled up to the main station. It would then be transferred to the upper end, and reeled out before being released.
All visuals by me, and the soundtrack, (Done using the SmartSound system).
Continue reading “Opening the High Frontier – the book is out!”
A couple of new items using the Human Outer planet Exploration vehicle, with VASIMR engines.
Graham Gazzard has done some wonderful renders of the mesh!
You can follow him on twitter here:
Continue reading “HOPE VASIMR Guest renders and a short video”
There is still much debate about why the Soviet Union – which was consistently way ahead in the early days of space exploration, failed to beat the USA to putting a man on the Moon. But while there is some disagreement over which factors were the most important, there is considerable consensus about which factors drove this.
The USA made putting a man on the Moon the key national objective, from before they had even put a man in orbit. Pretty much the entire space program focused on this objective. By the time this became a national objective in the Soviet Union, 2 years later, time was very tight to develop a powerful enough rocket, and get the required expertise in flight systems.
Also, at the time the speech was made, the Soviet Union was so obviously far ahead, they did not take the US intention seriously.
Continue reading “Why did the Soviet manned Lunar program fail?”
OK! The modelling is done of HOPE-VASIMR, (at least unless I spot anything that neeeds fixing), so it’s time for some shots of the final version.
As always, click on an image to see a larger version.
The above image is a distant view of the whole thing.
To give you an idea of the scale, it’s very nearly 200 metres from one end to the other.
As you may have noticed, I love the designs from the dawn of the space age, particularly the fifties designs of Wernher von Braun.
This one is the RM-1, which includes the ‘bottle suit’, something halfway between as spacesuit and a spaceship, with a ring of articulated arms, complete with a selection of tools. Seriously Cool!
The ship as a whole though is not as credible as most of the other designs, for a couple of reasons.
The red cone at the nose is meant to be a radiation shield for an unfeasibly tiny atomic reactor in front of it.
Continue reading “Wernher von Braun’s RM-1 spaceship design”
