The Art and Graphics of Nick Stevens. Available for hire.I specialise in unbuilt space projects, and the spacecraft of the Soviet Union.
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:
I’ve just finished up “The Satellite”, the original 1930’s design for the Buck Rogers Rocket. References were a bit contradictory, so I would not be surprised if you find some that look a bit different.
Here are some of the more unusual features:
I decided I really ought to go back and finish up the Delta II rocket. There were no real blockers, I just let it slip somehow…
As is often the case I like a spacecraft with a distinctive shape, and it’s also cool that I can easily make several variations with different logos and numbers of boosters.
Here’s how it’s coming along!
Continue reading “Current Work In Progress, Delta II rocket”
Finishing up the historical Soviet rocket from 1935, “Aviaveento”.
As usual everything done in Lightwave 3d, this one os based on some old Russian language books I bought on Ebay.
I’m a little unsure abut the long indented areas along the main hull. The references were a bit contradictory. But all those knobbly rivets were really there!
Continue reading ““AVIAVEENTO” “АВИАВНИТО” Historic soviet rocket”
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?”
The NK-33 engines were originally built for the Soviet Moon Rocket, the N-1. (Under the designation of NK-15, and NK-15V for the high altitude version). This design was a direct result of a blazing row between the Chief Designer, (Sergey Korolev), and the best rocket engine designer, Valentin Glushko. Glushko wanted to use propellants which Korolov considered far too dangerous. So Korolev turned to Nikolai Kuznetsov, who up until that point had only designed engines for jet aircraft. Large rocket engines are notoriously difficult to design, due to combustion instability, so they were pretty much forced into a large number of smaller engines.
Many consider this a key reason for the failure of the N-1 program.
Here’s a scene with the tug in the viscinity of the Moon. I went for very unrealistic lighting to try and fill in a bit. Not sure if it works?
New work in progress, a Dornier design for a space tug, with the option of 2, 4, or 6 aqdditional fuel tanks.
This one is coming together fast!
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.
Continue reading “More work on the 1958 Lockheed shuttle design”
