[Art] GregroxMun's Spaceship-A-Day thread

[Whirligig Girl]

After seeing several people doing a #spaceshipaday challenge on the twitter, I decided to join in on the fun. One high-ish quality picture of a relatively hard sci-fi* spaceship every day, for at least a hundred days. I will post the drawings here as well as Twitter.

*Propellant tanks are required, engines must be reasonable for the context, and no spaceship-bricks. Think Europa Report or Interstellar rather than Star Trek or Battlestar Galactica. I'm allowed to use Warp Drives or other FTL travel, but otherwise I will stick to using the Atomic Rockets philosophy. I am allowed to break this rule as much as I want to because I'm challenging myself, and I might want to do a Star-Trek style ship once in a while. Or, you know, Thomas the Tank Engine spaceship.

Day 1: August 2nd 2015

Thomas the Tank Engine as a Space Ship.

This was done as a joke, I meant to have the next drawing out on that day, but due to scanning delays, the simple webcam image of a sketch had to do for my first Spaceship. I calculated that if you filled his boiler with Hydrazine, and added a monoprop motor, he would have about 510-520 m/s of delta-v, which is more than Soyuz. It's enough for Minmus Landing and Orbit in KSP. He has to be launched on a Saturn V of course, if you want to put him into Earth Orbit.

"My boiler is on fire!" Thomas said. "No," said the Hype Train Driver. "That's just the hydrazine."

This drawing endorsed by the Northwestern Region of British Railways' controller.

Day 2: August 3rd 2015

Steampunk Aethership

It's a steampunk spaceship with a NERVA/NTR/LV-N rocket and ammonia propellant. This was meant to be Day 1's image, the Thomas the Tank Engine one was done as a joke, but this image was not scanned in time to post on the day it was meant to, so it had to be posted a day late. There may be two Spaceships for today, because I want to draw a spaceship today.

Using the principle of atomic power brought back in time from the year 2017, aetherships can explore the planet Mars and beyond! Of course, scientists had no idea what the power-generator was at first. It seemed to be running off of magic. The scientist in charge decided to remove one of the nuclear damper rod for closer examination, and the whole situation rapidly deteriorated. They were of course able to replicate the reactor eventually by 1885, and it was described by physicists that matter and energy are interchangeable. What exactly the formula was was still a mystery. This later became the fundamental groundwork for Dr. Einstein's theory of mass-energy relation, published in 1902. The theory of relativity by the same physicist also required the retroactive renaming of all in-service Aether Ships to Space ships or Rocket ships.

Twitter

Archive:

Day 1: Thomas the Tank Engine spaceship

Day 2: Steampunk Aethership

Day 2.5: Gemini-esque Exoatmospheric Lander

Day 3: The (Late) Nuclear Turbojet Space Shuttle

Day 4: Apollo Warp Ship of the past.

Day 5: Heavily Damaged Rocketship.

Day 6: AST Vintage Space Lunar Lander.

Edited August 11, 2015 by GregroxMun

[Endersmens]

that's so cool that the railway controller commented on your picture. Good job!

[Whirligig Girl]

Thank you.

[InterCity]

Nicely done!

[Whirligig Girl]

Day 2.5: August 3rd 2015, ridding myself of scan-lag of spaceship coming the next day.

Gemini Exoatmospheric Lander

This spacecraft is meant to be a lander for small moons and other bodies. It's probably some form of alien space program ship, but it could be retro 60s tech built for an alternate history moon landing. It's got an RTG on top with a shadow-shield, and a decent throttleable hypergolic lander section, with three storage containers on the side.

[Whirligig Girl]

Day 3/lateness August 4th 2015/August 6th 2015.

Turbojet Nuclear Atmosphere Shuttle

A Nuclear TurboSABRE powered aerospacecraft docks with an orbital propellant depot. I drew this a while ago so the backstory has slipped away. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[Endersmens]

That looks awesome. Good job, good sir!

[Whirligig Girl]

Day 4, images will be late for the foreseeable future. August 8th, 2015

Apollo Warp Ship (AKA the silliest spaceship since the Thomas the Tank Engine Spaceship

Here you can see an artist's impression of the spacecraft from over 40000 years ago that went to the distant planet Luna, over four lightyears away. To accomplish this, the spacecraft was fitted with a Star Trek company Warp Drive, the first of its kind. You can also see the Lunar shuttlecraft in the Jupiter Five's cargo bay.

[Whirligig Girl]

Day 5, August 9th, 2015

Ad Astra II Rocketship heavily damaged.

I tried to use the pen+marker technique that the other two spaceshipaday artists on twitter seem to use. I think it turned out okay.

The Ad Astra II entered orbit around Europa to refuel its propellant tanks, tactical officer and pilot Forest spotted a strange blip on the radar. "Can you get a power signature, Kelly?" Kelly Lanchinwon, the science officer, complied. "Captain" She said. "Uranian Rebelion ships at 12.3 by 2.4. Closing in on our orbit. They're charging lasers." Captain Gary was shocked, and pressed some buttons on his chair. "Ektrodine, charge the rayguns. We're going into battle." The rayguns were usless against the new shields carried by the Uranian ships. Before they knew it, the Ad Astra II's own deflectors were shot and some shots were fired at the propellant tanks and impulse engines of the rocket. "Ektro, try modulating the rayguns through the frequency of the Uranian shields." Forest ordered. The engineer von Ektrodine went to work modifying the raygun computers. The rayguns were finally able to penetrate the shielding of the Uranian Rebels. They destroyed the weapons and shields, forcing the rebels to retreat to a higher orbit out of the raygun range. Unfortunately, the new Uranian lasers had a special trick up their sleeve. The antimatter containment bottles were losing their magnetic force. Antimatter containment would soon be lost. The Propellant Hull was open to space, a minor meteor impact would cause a leak. Using RCS-thrust only, Ad Astra II limped to the Europa orbital station. "At least they didn't hit the spacewarp motor, we'd have a 3-year trip home."

[Plume & Akakak]

These are really nice drawings, GregroxMun. Keep them coming !

[Whirligig Girl]

Day 6, August 10th, 2015.

Vintage Space Lunar Lander.

Inspired by the cartoon silhouette at the beginning and ending of the videos of Vintage Space. I thought it was a cute design, and I figured it could be a good spacecraft. I actually drew this the day before the damaged Ad Astra II rocketship.

"The Flytrap has landed." Commander Tietel announced. The world cheered.