Mercury: Desolation at Dawn by geirla
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Description
Well, waiting for the March/April Bryce challenge to open up, I've starting making some more models and updating some old ones.
I made this lander, so I thought I ought to put is somewhere. Not sure if I'm starting a series or just screwing around, but I have an idea for Venus....
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Mercury. Not exactly the most hospitable place to visit, even near dawn. By the time the sun reaches noon, the heat will melt lead. It's a dense little world. In places near the surface, there are deposits, and rich veins of more than just lead: gold, silver, platinum -- all sorts of rare and heavy elements. In theory, it would be easy to mine here, even given the extremes of temperatures.
But Mercury is inconvenient. It might only have half the mass of Mars, but it's got about the same gravity, and getting down to the surface and back to orbit is nearly twice as hard as on Mars, because there's no atmosphere to slow you down on landing. You almost need as much delta-V for a round trip between Mercury's surface and orbit as for a trip to low Earth orbit and back.
And the planet itself is hard to reach. It spins around the sun so fast that you have to waste a lot of fuel to catch it -- enough fuel to get you to a transfer orbit out to the Kuiper. True, it's faster to go to Mercury than to Pluto, but it's no big surprise that Pluto and its moons have more inhabitants than Mercury. There are barely 200 people on Mercury on a busy day and most of them are scientists or tourists.
No other reason to bother to visit. If you want heavy metals, find yourself a nice class M asteroid and strip it bare. It's easier on the equipment, cheaper to transport, and it won't melt your shoes.
--Grand Tour 2150: A Guide to the Solar System, Euphoria Press
Comments (17)
shayhurs
Nice! Cool lander and terrain. Like the POV you constructed as well.
kjer_99
Very fine series of renders and the info is interesting, too.
grafikeer
Excellent model and series of images...well presented,and the accompanying info adds to the image.Very well done,look forward to your entry in the Bryce Challenge!
Bambam131
Excellent image!!! The scale and lighting is outstanding as well as the detail of your Lander. Very impressive work here and again another wonderful example of what can be accomplished with Bryce in the right hands! Cheers, David
Biffowitz
Fabulous terrain and use of shadows. Cool modeling on the lander!
Seaview123
Just excellent work, as always. I love your model work, and your stories make it seem we're reading someone's journal or a history lesson from the future. Well done!
NoobasaurUS
Very interesting picture and the liner notes are just awesome. was beginning to think I went through one of those worm holes to an alternate universe. Excellent and good luck in the challenge!
marcopolinski
fantastic scene!
rj001
this is absolutely beautiful, brilliant composition. 5*
duo
I love this kind of scenes! Just added to my preferred!
dcmstarships
tremendous job on the landscape
alltheoriginalnames
Very cool piece man, like the multiple views on this. Nice concept on the right up as well
phil01
excellent work
DPW
Can't think of a single nit. Wonderful composition, very photorealistic. Particularly like the bottom middle picture, nice atmospheric (so to speak) effects.
e-brink
Excellent model and lighting.
Rutra
I really liked the text, makes my mind wander, like when I'm reading a good sci-fi book. The planet looks great. I was expecting a bigger and yellower sun, but I'm sure you have your facts right. The ship looks very realistic and so do the renders. Good work!
wblack
Stunningly realistic and well detailed and constructed spacecraft set in a realistic and believable planetary landscape. The dramatic lighting and innovative perspective views of the vehicle make this a masterful work. Really well done my friend!