Mechanix Illustrated: Moon Farms to Banish Starvation

Mechanix Illustrated. May, 1954.

Fifty years from now much of the world’s food may be grown high in the sky! Tomorrow’s farmers may raise their crops on artificial “moons” that have been launched into space and move in orbits around the earth. And the successful agriculturalist will probably be a combination chemist, biologist and engineer.

By James Nevin Miller.

An original MI design by Frank Tinsley.

Link: Moon Farms to Banish Starvation

Lifeboat Foundation: Space Ark I

Here is the megaproject of Lifeboat Foundation in style of Noah-technology. Space Ark I is a self-sustaining space colony built to ensure humanity could survive disasters that make Earth uninhabitable. Noah is back! He knows how to keep us, and will tell us what to do... Give your money :)

Lifeboat Foundation: Presentation of Space Ark

Space in the 1980s and 1990s

Illustrated history: Space Stations and Manned Spaceflight in the 1980s and 1990s

Mechanix Illustrated: Space Wear from 1950s

Mechanix Illustrated. January, 1956.

Designers are already working on the styles the well-dressed space man needs to survive. IT MAY or may not be true that clothes make the man, but one thing is certain: when he starts traveling in outer space his life will depend on the clothes he wears. For the past decade a unique group of clothing stylists has been hard at work determining the cut and materials of future fashions in space dress...

By Lloyd Mallan, Author of Men, Rockets And Space Rats.

Link: What We’ll Wear in Space

Pat Rawlings Space Art

Pat Rawlings is a well known space illustrator and designer. He has painted many scenes of human exploration on the Solar system, and deep space. His paintings of space scenes have been used in various studies by NASA and have appeared in many books. He has been doing NASA art for many years and has become one of the most popular artists in the world of aerospace.

His art has been on the cover of Aviation Week and Space Technology 9 times. Pat Rawlings produced artwork also for various organizations and media (Lockheed, McDonnell-Douglas, Wyle Laboratories, The Ballistic Missile Defense Organization, Ballantine Books, Tor Books, Analog, Time-Life Books, Scientific American Magazine, Encyclopedia Britannica, Air and Space Smithsonian Magazine, Walt Disney Television Productions, IMAX Space Films and NHK Publishing Japan among others). Pale Blue Dot by Carl Sagan featured a dozen of Rawlings' paintings. His design of all the spacecraft and the colony in the 3D IMAX film, L5: First City in Space garnered national critical acclaim. In addition, he has provided preproduction art, conceptual designs, and technical advisory assistance for several other film projects. His artworks are seen in a huge number of publications and these can also be found in collections around the world.

Pat Rawlings creates images based on scientific and technical themes that appeal to both rocket scientists and regular folk. His extraterrestrial "snapshots" of future events give viewers a sense of "being there" as explorers hop from one world to the next using the best technology of the 21st century. Rawlings' desire to travel in space and time motivate him to make scenes as accurate as possible. After consulting with numerous space experts around the country, he uses hand-built and computer models, topographical maps, and space and family vacation photos to mentally create his worlds. Artist says: "Space art provides me with an excuse to talk to some of the most interesting people in the country, build minature models of space ships, and then sit in my studio painting or working on the computer for hours while listening to movie soundtracks and classical music."

Below is a selection of some of his countless artworks (you can click on images for a much larger version).

Note: All artwork and images copyright © Pat Rawlings. Please do not use images without the permission of the artist.

Links:

Official Pat Rawlings website

Pat Rawlings and his Cosmic Canvas

Rick Sternbach Space and Sci-Fi Art

Richard Michael Sternbach is an illustrator who is best known for his space illustrations and his work on the Star Trek television series. He has been a space and sci-fi artist since the early 1970s, often combining both interests in a project. He is a founding member and Fellow of the International Association of Astronomical Artists (IAAA), which was formed in 1981. He has written and illustrated articles on orbital transfer vehicles and interstellar flight for Science Digest. Beginning in the late 1970s Rick added film and television illustration and special effects to his background, with productions like "Star Trek: The Motion Picture", "The Last Starfighter", "Future Flight", and "Cosmos", for which he and other members of the astronomical art team received an Emmy award, the first for visual effects. Rick Sternbach also twice received the coveted Hugo award for best professional science fiction artist, in 1977 and 1978. Below are some examples of Rick Sternbach's original space paintings with artist description.

Note: All artwork and images copyright © Rick Sternbach. Please do not use images without the permission.

Bussard Ramjet (Science Digest, May 1983), illustrating my article on the then-current situation in interstellar studies. In 1960 Dr. Robert Bussard theorized that spacecraft fuel could be gathered up en route using strong magnetic fields. In 1983 he sat in my living room and sketched up this design, which features a multilayer forward scattershield, habitat modules, radiator tower, and ramscoop engine. The ship is seen dropping off its unmanned deuterium fusion booster after reaching 1000 kilometers per second velocity.

Refueling Station I wrote and illustrated an article for the May 1983 issue of Science Digest which examined the "state of the art" of interstellar exploration schemes. The article also featured sidebar pieces by two of the prominent thinkers in the field, Dr. Robert Forward and Dr. Robert Bussard.This painting depicts a ship imagined by the third "Bob" in the interstellar game, Dr. Robert Enzmann, as it arrives in a new star system. The icy moons of this gas giant may provide a new fuel source for the ship's fusion engines.

Voyager FoundPrivate commission. Imagine a combined human-dolphin crew heading out to find Voyager 1 and bring it home to the Smithsonian. Imagine their surprise when they discover the gold "greetings from Earth" record and playback stylus are -gone-. Their ship is not a true interstellar spacecraft, but the precursor of one; a far extrasolar explorer powered by early laser-induced fusion engines. I'd send dolphins to do EVA only if they want to go; we do 3D moves pretty well; maybe they do them better.

Space Doctor (Novel by G. Harry Stine writing as Lee Correy, Del Rey Books). An ambulance module tears away from an orbital worksite accident in this story of the dangers of space construction. In the 1970s, some imaged that large space-based solar arrays would be beaming cheap energy to Earth by now. Located at GEO 22,500 miles up, orbiting medical facilities would be required along with habitats; it is assumed that returning to Earth might take too long or the g-load could prove more harmful to the patient than staying in microgravity.

Earth Moon Halley This painting from the book COMET by Dr. Carl Sagan and Ann Druyan depicts Comet Halley during its passge through the inner solar system in 1910. During this time, the comet's ion tail may have grazed the Earth.

Official website: Rick Sternbach Studio

Wikipedia: Rick Sternbach

Internet Speculative Fiction Database: Rick Sternbach Bibliography

Rick Sternbach at Memory Alpha

SebRT.com: Interview with Rick Sternbach