GALLERY: Feast your eyes on the spaceships of THE EXPANSE

SyFy has released a cargo hold-size cache of white-hot spaceship and space station art for The Expanse TV series. There's some seriously fantastic designs here--plenty to drool over and get excited for the first season, which officially starts Monday, December 14. SyFy already released the first episode though, which you can watch right now!

These also serve as great inspiration for your next hard scifi campaign or interplanetary space opera. Click to enlarge!

 

 

 

Images courtesy: SyFy

Elysium trailer #2 - Action AND Intelligent Sci-Fi?

YEP. I'LL SEE THAT.

Holy @#%$! Check out the trailer for Neill Blomkamp's Elysium!

Now, THIS looks promising. From the guy who brought us District 9.

Synopsis from IMDB:

Set in the year 2159, where the very wealthy live on a man-made space station while the rest of the population resides on a ruined Earth, a man takes on a mission that could bring equality to the polarized worlds.

Stars Matt Damon, Jodie Foster, and Sharlto Copley from District 9. Some choice stills (click to enlarge):

Yes, that is a Stanford Torus Wheel space station!!!

Via io9.com

More Incredible Space Station Inspiration

Wired has a great photo gallery up right now featuring space station concept that didn't pan out. Go check it out for yourself!

Above: An Apollo-era design. Oh hey, you should also check out this awesome blog called Beyond Apollo, which is ALL about concepts and ideas from the golden age of American spaceflight. I was impressed enough to add it to my blogroll. :) Really wonderful stuff!

Below: On cusp of the shuttle-era NASA was working on this "spider" space station that recycles a spent tank for crew housing.

From NASA:

A 1977 concept drawing for a space station. Known as the "spider" concept, this station was designed to use Space Shuttle hardware. A solar array was to be unwound from the exhausted main fuel tank. The structure could then be formed and assembled in one operation. The main engine tank would then be used as a space operations control center, a Shuttle astronaut crew habitat, and a space operations focal point for missions to the Moon and Mars.

Very cool to see them working on not just the main orbiter vehicle but an entire playset--er, family of spacecraft for the then fledgling program.

All images: NASA via Wired.com

Colonies in Space: Inspiration Realistic and Fantastic

Space colonies are the pinnacle of non-terrestrial habitation in space. It's far trickier to build your world than it is to land on with the keys already in the ignition. I'd done a previous post on colonies--even reused a few images (man do I love the orange death star!) but I wanted to focus on a few different ones for this post. I suppose you could separate them into two categories: realistic futurism (that is to say design concepts by artists and engineers for exploratory purposes) and Hollywood's interpretation.

My point with this series hasn't been to be exhaustive--that is to track down every space or moon base in pop culture. Rather, just to share some art that I think is really cool.

Let's start with the realistic (images courtesy of NASA image archives). Many of these show large agricultural parcels to feed their on-board populations, much like the way the pioneers needed to become self-sustaining:

Here's a few concepts designed for TV and film, toys, books, comics, etc. that may or may not have made it the screen. They didn't need to be accurate in order to wow viewers, but a few--like Babylon 5--have gone the extra mile to include solar panels, centrifuges, shuttle bays, hydroponics facilities, etc.

The Valley Forge was technically a ship, but it serves very much as a colony of sorts...

 

Some Disney concepts...

Probably the most famous space colony in science fiction...

Just for kicks, here's a huge graphic comparing scale between space stations, spaceships, and other intergalactic craft, both real and imagined.

Resources

• More types of giant space habitats
• Paleo-future blog posts on Space Colonies
• National Space Society website on Space Settlements

Torus Wheels: Iconic Spinning Space Stations

The Stanford Torus or "wheel" is often regarded as the quintessential design template for orbiting space stations in that it provides microgravity via centrifugal rotation. That is, it spins and people stick to the floor.




While it's been popularized in comic books, science fiction novels, and film, the design has grounding in real-world physics. The concept was developed at Stanford University based on theories rocket engineers Wernher von Braun and Herman Potočnik.

This scene is actually from a centrifuge area on the spaceship Discovery One, but the concept is the same.

NASA took the Torus further by using the design to help the public understand how people might live in space one day. The Torus is perhaps the closest approximation to Earth-like living--that is to say extended or semi-permanent residence--for humans in space.

During the Space Race, the wheel design achieved star status as a pop culture icon of human achievement in the marathon to establish a permanent orbiting settlement.

And now, for your viewing pleasure:



Real World Torus Wheel Concepts
NASA's Torus work
Article about recovered, long-lost scenes from 2001 A Space Odyssey

Next Time: Outer Space Colonies!

Space Station Inspiration

We covered moon bases earlier this week, so it seemed appropriate to throw a few starbases (space stations) up. These aren't all cutaways, and many of them are more fantasy inspired.

Next Time: Wheels in SPAAAAAACE!

Click the tags below to see more Space Stations or more inspiring posts!