blender

art SpaceX Falcon 9 landing burn

This piece depicts a Falcon 9 booster in the final stages of its landing burn. The landing legs have been unlatched and are beginning to deploy, the pistons pushing the legs out against the airstream. At the top of the booster, the interstage-mounted grid fins continue to pivot to keep the booster pointed towards the landing pad. Now that the single Merlin 1D engine in the center of the octaweb has slowed the booster down to a near-standstill, the turbopump exhaust flame mostly burns down instead of wrapping around the octaweb and up the side. Read more (3 min)

art Xon Wasp departing Venalis Station

This piece shows the Xon Wasp general-purpose atmosphere-capable jump ship as it travels from Venalis Station to a nearby mining outpost. To conserve fuel, the jump drive isn’t engaged for short moon-to-moon hops like this one. Instead, the trip is performed entirely in normal space, where efficient maneuvers make a real difference.

Read more (4 min)

art Illustration for Robert Zubrin's article on Moon Direct for the New Atlantis

This image was commissioned by The New Atlantis to accompany an article about Moon Direct by Robert Zubrin, known for his Mars Direct plan.

art Heart of Gold performs its Trans-Mars Injection burn

This piece shows the SpaceX Interplanetary Transportation System Mars lander performing the trans-Mars injection burn that marks the beginning of its coast to Mars.

Read more (3 min)

art SpaceX Falcon 9 Booster Landing on OCISLY

My rendition of a Falcon 9 booster landing on Of Course I Still Love You, SpaceX’s East coast droneship. This is a triple-engine landing burn; while SpaceX hasn’t performed a triple-engine landing burn since JCSAT-16, very heavy GTO payloads at the edge of Falcon 9’s capability may require triple-engine landing burns in the future.

Read more (1 min)

art SpaceX Falcon 9 Booster Glide

My rendition of a Falcon 9 booster returning to Earth after a launch. The four grid fins are guiding it towards its landing pad as it hurtles downwards at supersonic velocities.

In this image, the Falcon 9 is at about 40km in altitude (with entry burn shutdown having occured seconds earlier) and is less than thirty seconds from the start of the landing burn.

Read more (1 min)

project SpaceX Falcon 9 and Dragon 2 3D model Visit project Visit project

This is a 3D model of the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket along with the Dragon 2 capsule. The Falcon 9 is in its landed configuration (but with the soot mysteriously washed off) and the Dragon 2 is in launch configuration (except for, you know, the “being on the rocket” part.)

Read more (2 min)

art SpaceX Red Dragon at Mars

My rendition of the Red Dragon capsule as it deploys its trunk in preparation for atmospheric entry, just minutes away.

Launching on a Falcon Heavy from LC-39A at Cape Canaveral no earlier than 2020, the Red Dragon missions will demonstrate powered landings on the Red Planet.