Before the development of the Rephi Portals there were several ideas and proposals for ships to transport people and materials to those parts of our solar system that humans wished to exploit. The time and energies involved made the projects difficult, to say the least. This ship never got past the design-stage, mainly due to the lack of any kind of system for dealing with the adverse effects on the human body from prolonged zero-gravity. Of course, once the Rephi Portals cut down the transit time things like that became much easier to manage, but this design was too far "ahead" of that invention. So it was just one of many concepts that mostly lay forgotten, even though much of the planning and thought that teams put into even these failed designs would help shape the later vehicles, even long after they were set aside. ------------ Another idea for a ship that seemed like it was on a good track, but somehow just doesn't quite "do it" for me. Still, I'm developing lots of new components that I like, so even if I don't do anything more with this ship, that communications-array will find future uses, for instance. Everything in that ship model is my own creation, assembled and rendered in Bryce. Many of the textures are my own, as well. The image of Ceres comes courtesy of NASA and their latest amazing probe that is now orbiting that strange place. I look forward to many more mysteries than answers once we get down to really studying the place, which is what I love about exploring our solar system. Compositing and other post work all done in Photoshop. Thanks for taking a look, and a very big thank you to the folks who nominated me as a candidate in the April Artist of the Month ballot, it was an unexpected and surprising honor, and congrats to the very-much-deserving winner!