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MolDesignStudio β Ikarus 2033
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Published: 2013-01-23 22:08:28 +0000 UTC; Views: 5603; Favourites: 107; Downloads: 114
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Description
SPACE!A manned mission to a newly discovered moon orbiting Pluto.
Although this natural satellite lacks impact craters, it is known that much of its history was marked by volcanic activity, creating vast solidified pools of ancient basaltic lava.
- Vue 10
- Photoshop CS5
(Make sure to view in fullscreen)
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Comments: 29
Very interesting idea, and something of a mystery. Although, some question the possibility of your concept of a small rocky moon, It could have been the rocky core of a moon like Enceladus that lost its ice cover while encountering objects thrown out of there original locations. If you think about the orbital perturbations of the Gas and Ice Giants, during the early part of the Solar System's history, almost anything consideredΒ improbable might turn out to be realities.
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Thanks buddy, glad you commented!
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Excellent planet making in Vue. Is the craft to the left from a photo?
Why man a mission to Pluto?
Manned missions should take place if there is a chance of life on the object, mine-able resources for Earth, or attributes that can support human life.
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I absolutely adore this type of spacecraft design!
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Love the piece. Only difficulty I have would have is a scientific one. There would be only a fraction of the light available if this were Pluto. The sun when seen from that distance of 3 billion miles is little more than the twinkling of the stars themselves. Other than that, this piece ROCKS. Love the detail on the exploration craft. Lots of bits and dangling parts, just like NASA used to make... [link]
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Nice work on the ship.
Interesting texture for the moon.
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For worldlets out there, you're more likely to see volcanism involving ice and frozen gases (or stuff that would be gas on Earth.
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I really like the bright light and interesting detail. Great material on the moon!
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The moon is interesting and reminiscent of others with a varied surface, but the context of the image shows that it's nowhere near "hard" sci-fi.
If another moon is discovered orbiting Pluto, it surely will not have enough mass to form a sphere and will appear like a stereotypical small Kuiper belt object (i.e. icy asteroid). Given the implied albedo of this moon, Hubble and many ground-based telescopes would've been able to resolve it many years ago. Also, having solar panels that far out are pretty much useless and I can recognize some pieces of the spacecraft as parts of the ISS. First of all, the ISS is not designed to go outside of low Earth orbit at all; second, Pluto receives roughly 1/1600th (1/40^2) of sunlight that Earth does, so using modern and near-future solar cells would be far too inefficient.
Technically, ignoring science fact, the background is well done and I have no complaints, but the foreground includes an over-exposed montage of parts of spacecraft that do not fit properly. The lighting on the spacecraft also does not match the moon. It's distracting from the nicely rendered and conceptualized background. The placement of items in the image is fine, but exposing the spacecraft properly (or possibly using a different one) and matching the light better with the background would improve the image dramatically. If you're committed to using the same spacecraft, maybe pretending the "camera" is not set to use the hyperfocal distance and has a wide aperture (i.e. make the foreground somewhat blurry) may work better since I think the quality of the foreground is poor compared to the background.
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I thank you very much for your comment, thats exactly what I'd like to see from the DA community, constructive criticism!
And I agree for the most part, it is nowhere near "hard" science-fiction. Well at least not when considering the points that followed in your comment.
"If another moon is discovered orbiting Pluto, it surely will not have enough mass to form a sphere", well, that is not completely true. Look at Charon, one of the moons orbiting Pluto. It is a perfect sphere, and the same goes for Nyx and Hydra if I'm not mistaken. Although the probability of a newly discovered natural satellite orbiting Pluto to be an icy asteroid is of course undeniably high. Speaking of which, the latest object in orbit around Pluto has been discovered in mid-2012 and scientists expect even more unkown satellites.
You are right with the ISS parts, and I know it will be frustrating for anyone who recognizes it. Apart from blatantly taking parts of the ISS to resemble the Ikarus spacecraft, it is not unlikely that in the near future spacecrafts will be build in orbit around earth, meaning that these crafts might have a strong resemblance to the current ISS design and construction.
Again, thank you for the comment, I shall take your advice and contemplate about changing some of the things you pointed out, especially in the last paragraph.
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Charon is nearly as large as Pluto (when comparing it to the moons of other planets), and it is massive enough to have its gravity form it into a sphere 1200 km in diameter. That's why it was discovered decades before all of Pluto's other known moons. Roughly, a typical satellite which is composed mostly of silicates will have to be 300 km wide to become spherical (I believe Mimas is just above this limit). The moon Hyperion is a few hundred kilometers across but low density so it has an odd shape. Nix, Hydra and the two newly discovered moons are much smaller, only a few dozen kilometers across at the most and their shape is unknown. Their size is only estimated based on their albedo and possible composition. New Horizons will refine their measurements and may even image them with detail for the first time during its flyby in 2015. Imagine Pluto's smaller moons to be the size of Mars' moon Phobos, which is not spherical at all. Nix, Hydra, P4, and P5 simply have nowhere near the necessary mass to become spherical. Also, technically, not even the planets are perfect spheres (see: oblate spheroid).
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I love this! The moon texture is amazing. Very, very nice work.
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Always appreciated when you comment! Thanks jrmalone!
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You're welcome, Bjorn. I've been absent way too long. I hope we can chat again sometime.
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That would be nice indeed, just give me shout in skype mate.
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it would be interesting to find basalt that far out.
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Clearly planet X marks the spot.
Contact with the Ikarus crew ceased 2 hours after final orbit insertion burn, and could not be reestablished.
The origin of the strange lines and structure like rock formations will stay a mystery. The tragedy leaves NASA covered in masses of red tape.
Yes. I like that one.
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Haha! Good one
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