Mars Lander Command Module Flight Station by wblack
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Description
Mars Lander Command Module Flight Station
An Orion’s Arm future history image.
The flight control station of my Mars Settlement Lander.
Image is part of my current sequence of images depicting the establishment of a permanent human settlement on the surface of Mars. This reflects events centered around the Year Zero mark on my future history timeline – see link below.
Future History Timeline Context Link: Orion’s Arm Future History Timeline.
Image Composition:
The flight station structure and flight officer acceleration couches are my own design constructed entirely of Bryce primitives and nested Booleans textured in my own custom Bryce preset materials.
Acceleration couch design is based on NASA biometrics data for optimum body position for accelerative and deaccelerative forces between 4 and 6 Earth gravities. The couch design differs from both the Apollo and the Space Shuttle designs due to the unique dynamics of nuclear-pulse propulsion resulting from the manner in which thrust is applied to the vehicle and correspondingly to the vehicles occupants. The frame of the couch is segmented, the segments interconnected by pivot points permitting the couch to flex during powered nuclear pulse maneuvers.
All buttons, dials, illuminated switches and status lights on the central consol are fully modeled from Bryce primitives and nested Booleans textured with my own custom Bryce preset materials.
Keyboard and flat panel monitor frame are Dystopia Office items exported as Wavefront Objects and re-textured in Bryce. Keyboards have been replaced by my own illuminated keyboard texture.
Visual displays: I took some care to accurately to show the vehicle descent ground track on both the Color-Coded Contour Map display, and on the Full Globe display descending to the correct position and location of Syria Planum on the Martian surface. These displays are my own unique creation using the following image resources:
PIA00407 the original full global composite from the Viking EDRs primary data set.
Photo Credit: PIA00407 courtesy NASA/JPL.
Global Color Views of Mars Page URL: http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/pia00407
Map is the Color-Coded Contour Map of Mars M 25M RKT By U.S. Geological Survey 2003 Prepared for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration
Map is based on data from the Mars Orbiter Laser Altimeter (MOLA), an instrument on NASA’s Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) spacecraft.
Map Image Credit: M 25M RKT courtesy U.S. Department of the Interior U.S. Geological Survey
Figures are DAZ M4 using Elite textures, Theo and Sol, exported as Wavefront Objects.
Headset is 3-D-C’s free headset.
All other models are my own Bryce creations, constructed in Bryce 6.3 and rendered in Bryce 7 Pro.
As always thank you for your interest, thoughtful comments, and encouragement.
Comments (18)
wblack
Related Image Links: Under the Martian Sky Syria Planum Landing Working Group Mars Settlement Transport Diagram The Sands of Mars Martian Dusk Aero Braking Orion Lander Separation Terminus of an Arc Orion Launch Vehicle Final Assembly Right Before Mars Settlement Project Orion Launch
karl.garnham1
Amazing work How did you do it thats one amazing cockpit I love it. 5+ Well Done Karl
flavia49
wonderful series
Mutos2
Really impressive in both graphic design and technical details ! Hard-Science at its best !
GrandmaT
Great job!
iborg64
great image and amazing technical info
Beausabre
Man, there's a lot of 2001 in that image...
wblack
Thanks Beausabre, that’s quite a compliment. I am sure you are aware that both Stanley Kubrick and Arthur C Clarke (the director and the author of 2001 A Space Odyssey respectively) were meticulous in their adherence to hard science technical reference’s and their designs for the vehicles relied on many of the same data set’s and design specifications I reference often. This can be seen in the movie, particularly in the layout and design of flight stations for both the lunar transport and the Discovery cockpit. Interestingly, Arthur C. Clarke intended that the interplanetary spacecraft Discovery be propelled by an Orion type nuclear-pulse system - the same type of system which is the core technology for interplanetary propulsion in my science fiction future history. Nuclear-pulse propulsion represents the only currently feasible means, achievable using existing technology and engineering techniques, and materials, to send payloads of thousands of tons around the solar system. You can see Arthur C. Clarke speaking on Orion, along with rare flight test footage here in an excerpt of the BBC documentary To Mars by A-Bomb. I also highly recommend the entire seven-part documentary, part one here: Project Orion- To Mars by A-Bomb-Part One On another interesting note, Researchers at the University of Washington say they’ve built all the pieces for a fusion-powered nuclear-pulse rocket system that could get a crew to Mars in 30 days. Link: Unwanted Blog: Fusion Rocket
wblack
I had to go to my e-mail to find this one, Darrell Wollert, my long time friend and co-author of the Orion’s Arm future history, recently sent me this link to an article that contains video of computer simulations of the fusion powered nuclear-pulse propulsion system (referenced in my reply to Beausabre above) currently being developed by a Redmond-based space-propulsion company called MSNW. Link: Rocket powered by nuclear fusion could send humans to Mars
geirla
Very nicely done! I love all that detail. And if anyone wants to look at the .pdf for the source of that map, I was eventually able to download the 20MB file from http://geopubs.wr.usgs.gov/open-file/of02-283/of02-283.pdf
wblack
Thanks geirla - that'is the one. The text that comes with it is rather interesting, detailing the mapping technique and data conversion method, really great brain food.
grafikeer
Exceptional modelling,especially the couches and consoles...nicely composed,with great attention to detail,as we have come to expect!
peedy
Fantastic detailed modeling! Corrie
gmvgmvgmv
Wonderful model with readily apparent, scrupulous attention to detail. Great work!
3dtox
Great work!
dcmstarships
Always nice to see a flight deck image. Your commitment to realism is admirable.
su_liam
I generally like this. If I had to criticize, I'd say it seems a bit unnecessarily roomy. It doesn't look like your FH is far enough into the future for Star Trek, no-limits design, so the space wastage is an issue. More importantly, though, the ergonomics seem problematic. Most of the controls are well out of reach and the screens are going to have even Right Stuff astronaut eyes squinting at them so far off. Admittedly, some controls would not be used frequently or at all in flight. These would best be put out of the immediate area of the pilots. This saves valuable space around the front of the flight deck, reduces complexity of controls and leaves controls that really need to be left alone in flight left alone. I would condense the vertical dimension to about half and the left-right dimension to about 1/3. Even with the mass-budget allowed by Orion, optimum sizing is still governed by the compromise between big-enough-to-be-comfortable and small-enough-to-be-accessible. The latter compromise has never really been an issue for NASA designers constrained by chemical-propulsion mass limitations...
wblack
su_liam, Distance of the screens from the pilots, that’s a fair point. This entire sequence of images is scheduled for update and that change is already included. Updates will not be here however, I am no longer updating this site due to the lack of traffic and the narrow range of interest of the site in general. My main gallery is now located on deviantART,here:http://william-black.deviantart.com/. All updates, special features, and new work are to be found here. From my deviantART profile page you can access all of my sub-galleries from a set of scrolling clickable image-link directories, and the entire Orion’s Arm Future History Synopsis is available on my main page in a scrolling text-box format. To address the details of your comment: >If I had to criticize, I'd say it seems a bit unnecessarily roomy. It doesn't look like your FH is far enough into the future for Star Trek, no-limits design, so the space wastage is an issue. No, you are quite wrong on this, which is understandable; few grasp the kind of performance nuclear pulse propulsion delivers. See Winchell Chung’s definitive project Orion page here:http://www.projectrho.com/public_html/rocket/realdesigns.php#id--Project_Orion With chemical rockets every gram counts, not so with Orion. Unlike almost every other rocket, Orion does not scale down worth a darn. It actually works better if you make it bigger. The Saturn V had enough delta V to send about 118 metric tons to Luna and back. A 1959 Orion design could send 1,300 freaking tons to Saturn and back! Instead of miserly trying to shave off grams from your rocket by things like omitting the Lunar Module's astronaut chairs, the Orion was talking about bringing along 100 kg Barber Chairs just in case any of the astronauts needed a shave. The upper limit for Orion is 8 million tons. >the ergonomics seem problematic All critical in-flight controls are accessed from the pilot’s keyboard controllers, and commends can be issued to switch pre-sets to different firing options from the keyboard controls. The center console controls are for setting up and modifying these pre-programmed firing sequences for three separate propulsion systems (the Orion nuclear pulse propulsion system, the Open-Cycle Gas Core nuclear thermal rockets on the hypersonic entry vehicle, and the chemical descent rockets for the Lander). This kind of set-up is handled in between burns of the primary propulsion systems, not during propulsive maneuvers. So no, the ergonomics are not problematic at all. I agree that the dimensions of the space are not optimal, not problematic in terms of mass (it’s an Orion after all) but not optimal. This is one of the issues I intend to address in my updated design.