Great detail again! So much detail that Bryce can't handle it on a single pass. Oh, for a 64-bit version...

that is a pretty freakin' fantastic control room image. would like to see more control rooms by you.

Fantastic POV. Now you really can see all the fantastic details. Corrie

Superb POV!

superlative scene and POV!

Spectacular modelling achievement and render!

This one is really worth viewing full size.

Some questions and critisisms from an engineering perspective. How Mass/dV limited is your space craft? Are all of those stations critical watches IE do they have to be manned durring all phases of flight? By extention what are your overall manning requirements for flight crew (crew compliment not counting mission specialists or passengers). Remember that for each critical watch you need atleast two (preferably three) watch-standers. Afterall, someone has to mind the console while Lt Dan's eating, sleeping, or on the crapper. Based on my own research and time in the Navy it seems to me that the your vessel is over-manned. In my mind the actual number of critical watches wouldn't excede three or four, Sensors/Astrogation, Engineering, Climate Control/Life Support, and Communications. Nit-picking aside, the render itself is beautiful. I particularly like the lighting and organic poses. PS: don't fall in to the star trek trap of not giving your crewmen pockets. I imagine that FOD would be a problem in the 0-gee enviroment and thus your people are going to need some way of securing thier pens/pencils, spare change, and keys to lockers. ;)

Interessante Perspektive.

Hi Greg, Excellent thoughtful questions, I have endeavored to provide a response detailing my reasoning – and the constraints of certain commercially available resources used. Your point about pockets on crew uniforms is well made and rational -- however I am using Poser figures and clothing – and these are not always so realistically designed so as to meet the challenge the reality of zero-g conditions would impose. Most Poser designers lean towards the ridiculous notion that futuristic female clothing will consist entirely of lingerie like affairs – very few produce realistic and practical crew garb. This is a real failing in terms of those who produce Poser items – they are more inclined to models which match the fantastical rather than the credible. In this render, for purposes of illustration, I have shown all duty-stations fully manned—in operation not every station would be manned at all times. An in-transit routine duty watch would consist of Flight and Propulsion -- three personnel. The duty-watch would change dependant on mission requirements, for example, during an insertion-burn or maneuvering, Crew-Vehicle & Orion Power-Pack Separation and Staging, or De-orbit and Landing, Callisto surface EVA operations, Callisto Surface Payload Loading, Callisto Orbital Cargo Loading (onto a pre-positioned Orion Cargo Return Power-Pack), the number of manned stations would be different than Flight during a routine in-transit watch such as I’ve depicted here: Flight Control Station which shows Flight, two personnel, two duty stations out of three manned, Propulsion is out of view in this shot as my objective was to show the detail of the flight control station. Command & Control Model In a post to his Rocketpunk Manifesto blog, Rick Robinson suggests the idea of a Mission Control model as command structure. Raymond McVay of Blue Max Studios took this idea and expanded upon it – his ideas are detailed on the Crew page of Atomic Rockets under “Mission Control Model.” To read this post in its entirety, go to Winchell Chung’s Atomic Rocket website Crew and scroll down the page to the section titled “The Mission Control Model.” From Raymond McVay’s model, I have adapted my command structure, crafting the elements to my needs. Mission Commander (MCOM): The overall director of the entire mission. While there will be four duty-watch command-grade Flight officers – only one will be MCOM – in charge of and responsible for the entire vehicle and crew and achieving mission objectives. Unlike Star Trek there is no “big chair.” MCOM will man one of the two flight-control stations located center of bridge. This being understood the Command Deck Staff (All Operational Cycles) consists of the following.Note: some crew wear more than one hat. Flight Flight: Each duty-shift will have one Flight Commander and one Flight Officer subordinate -- both are subordinate to .MCOM. and are responsible for performing required maneuver burns, including operation of the Orion Power-Pack and the Gas-Core Nuclear Light bulb propulsion system during Callisto landing and take-off. Flight is responsible for performing navigational checks, operating guidance and attitude control systems, operating the flight computers, radar and other sensors as necessary during their duty watch. Propulsion Engineer (Prop): Officer in charge of the entire propulsion system consisting of the Orion Power Pack – its associated impulse-charge handling machinery and the impulse-charge magazine stages, and the Gas-Core Nuclear Light bulb propulsion system. Integrated Communications Officer (INCO): This is the bridge between all the spacecraft's computer networks, the ship's personnel, MCOM and Flight. Flight Engineer (Chief): The supervisor in charge of all engineering systems. There are subordinate Flight Engineer positions: power, propulsion, maintenance, etc. COMMUNICATION AND ASTROGATION (COMAST) Guidance Procedures Officer (GPO or Guidance): They monitor the navigation of the spacecraft, ensuring that the guidance control software is operating properly during approach, docking, and capture maneuvers. Guidance, Navigation and Control Systems Engineer (SYS or System): They are responsible for the guidance, navigation, and control system hardware. This includes flight computers, radar, lidar, flir sensors, attitude jets, and all the connections. They direct repairs perform spot inspections. Spacecraft Communications (SCOM): The communicator between the spacecraft and other ships (both manned & unmanned) and surface stations. ENGINEERING Propulsion Engineer (Prop): Officer in charge of the entire propulsion system. Drive Engineer (Drive): Responsible for mechanical components of the Orion Drive System & Gas Core Nuclear Light Bulb systems. Electrical Engineer (EE): Responsible for the nuclear power plant and electrical systems. They are also responsible for monitoring radiation. LIFE SUPPORT Environmental Consumables Manager (ECM): This officer ensures that there is enough food, water, heat, and breathing mix to keep the crew alive. Everything from food storage to air vents to water faucets to air scrubbers. Flight Surgeon (Doc): Medical officer. They deal with disease, injury, ship cleanliness, and radiation. EVA Operations Chief Oversees all EVA operations in-flight, orbital, and surface. Subordinate positions are EVA Operations Orbital, EVA Operations Surface, EVA Operations Prep-Room Tech. PAYLOAD Payload Officer (PLO/Payload Payload Deployment and Retrieval Officer (PDRO or "Padro"): In charge of loading and unloading cargo. Also in charge of ensuring that the cargo load is balanced. Maintenance, Mechanical Arms, and Crew Systems Officer (MMACS): Officer oversees the maintenance of all the spacecraft's robotic arms, and associated systems. The Mission Set up and operate an Ammonia ice recovery operation on Jupiter’s moon Callisto. This requires a surface EVA crew to set up, manage, and maintain a nuclear powered high-pressure-high-temperature steam-fracking drilling and recovery rig; and an associated purification plant. The objective goal is to launch payloads of at least two thousand tons (per launch) to orbit from the surface of Callisto, load the material onto a pre-positioned, unmanned, Orion Power Pack for a return flight – which will haul at least ten thousand ton payloads, on final arrival the material payload will be de-orbited to the Martian surface via a heavy lander (and eventually (in liquid form)via bean-stalk) where it is to be used as an atmospheric green-house gas for the Martian Terraforming project. Mission times per crewed vehicle, are up to three years in duration. The Callisto operation will serve as a pilot program to a later project intended to recover Nitrogen ices in quantity from Neptune’s moon Triton. Terraforming Mars Terraforming Mars would require a three to five hundred year effort – and acquiring the resources logically involves resource recovery operations at Jupiter, Saturn, and Neptune’s moon Triton – the result of the program, in my future history is the spread of industrial civilization through-out the solar system. I’ve included a post detailing the necessary steps here: Mars Colony: The Expanding Frontier An evolutionary note: my research has yielded differing opinions on technique of resource delivery to Mars. One school of thought merely suggests meteoric re-entry and surface impact of materials (i.e. ammonia, methane, nitrogen, and water ice). A second school of thought suggests material boil-off at high altitude would drastically reduce the effectiveness of this approach – and considers controlled delivery of materials to surface installations consisting of large scale atmospheric diffusion towers to infuse the environment with the required green-house gases. I have come to favor the second school of thought in this regard. A consequence is the eventual construction of a Space Elevator at Mars and the consequence of the point made in the following paragraph is construction of a Space Elevator at Earth. A parallel operation to this process, which will result in a profitable venture for Mars, is a hydrocarbon resource recovery program which will deliver usable hydrocarbon products to Mars and offer the same for sale to Earth. Evidence suggests that between one and two hundred thousand OPEC-Production years (OPEC-Year = the amount of OPEC oil production in 1 year = 1 million metric tons) of chemical based hydrocarbons easily refined for fuel product exist on the various moons, asteroids, and comets of the solar system. See Discovery Of Abundant, Accessible Hydrocarbons Nearly Everywhere In The Solar System The unifying driving philosophy behind the group which colonizes Mars in my future history is rational self interest, and a vision of human endeavor constrained only by nature, science, and objective reality, and not by government, their endeavor is to engage in building a world sustained by free market capitalism – they have shed the bureaucratically imposed serfdom and enslavement -- the accomplishment-limited vision of a Socialist Earth. The Mission Vehicle The Callisto mission vehicle is the primary crewed component for this stage of the terraforming operation. Eventually a small fleet of these would be in cyclical transit to and from Callisto. Additionally the mission would be supported by pre-positioned un-manned logistical supply flights and pre-positioned return-flight impulse charge fuel stacks and separate, unmanned, cargo return vehicles. The system has two major components: an Orion propulsion module (the equivalent of an Orion Advanced Interplanetary vehicle), and a separable and fully autonomous crewed lander, which also serves as a surface crew habitat. The crewed landing vehicle is designed to return substantial payloads of material to Callisto orbit and is powered by eight Gas-Core Nuclear Light Bulb nuclear thermal rockets. The Orion propulsion module data is consistent with the figures found on the drive table chart on Winchell Chung’s Atomic Rocket website – under the Orion MAX column. As a reference point for the Gas-Core Nuclear Light Bulb nuclear thermal rockets see my post here: Gas Core SSTO Massive Booster which quotes extensively from Anthony Tate’s work concerning his “Liberty Ship” proposal. See his work here: Liberty Ship.