In dedication:

"H. G." Wells (21 September 1866 – 13 August 1946) Author of "War Of The Worlds"

Chesley Bonestell (January 1, 1888 – June 11, 1986) Painter, Designer, Illustrator

George Pal (February 1, 1908 – May 2, 1980) Animator, Film producer of 1953 vers.

Albert Nozaki (January 1, 1912 – November 16, 2003) Art Director, Designer(WOTW)

Some excellent classic illustrations:

http://drzeus.best.v...s/interior.html

It always struck me as odd that the world of 'science' fiction, seemed to overnight lose all credibility when it came to stories regarding civilizations on Mars - some in the media would keep the fire stoked with tales of pyramids at Elysium and Cydonia even while evidence was piling up by the second to disprove such claims. The possibility of underground cities or a secretive martian society were quickly becoming the only bastion of hope for some form of alien martian intellect to still exist there.

I've been wishing for a more Retro, smaller scale gameplay style for some time... Pioneer / Frontier but on a Single Stellar System rather than Galactic Scale and with much more primitive "realistic" in game technology.

I've been rolling a Mod idea around in my head for a while and I think I've got it...

A classic element of modern Space Opera is a recent war, essentially a transplant of the Western Genre using the American Civil War as a backdrop. I think we should run with that idea as the background of Pioneer, "The War" ended in 2999 and the game starts in 3000...

Pioneer is set around the year 3000 with a mature spacefaring society... I think a mod set around the year 2500 would be a great way to play around with a bunch of Retro gameplay elements and designs. Call it "Pre War Boom" and set it in during the first wave of FTL expansion, based in one of maybe a few dozen systems already settled by Slower than Light colony ships.

NeuralKernel: A pre FTL scenario mod could be a helpful way to get new players up to speed on Pioneers year 3200 FTL tech.

Also pre FTL civs 'might' (to keep things realistic) hopefully creep into the game at some point, so you could be helping to set up some ground rules/equipment for such societies <img src="' http://spacesimcentral.com/forum/public/style_emoticons//icon_e_smile.gi f"' class='bbc_emoticon' alt=':)' /> (having said that, some civ's may not even have spaceflight capability and may simply be planet bound.

I can imagine even those societies would need some form of air vehicles. Possibly a hybrid of modernized zeppelins and some limited form of rocket propelled aircraft. As far as interplanetary travel - Some variation of Von Braun's 3 stage rocket design might be a good base for a civ on the cusp of space travel. Given that civ's expands outwards, the moon needs a lot more development - and could even be made a starting point. Imagine having to drive a moon bus - transporting goods and passengers until you accumulated enough money to get a proper ship. It could make you appreciate what you have earned a lot more.

Anyways, obligatory posting of images <img src="' http://spacesimcentral.com/forum/public/style_emoticons//icon_e_smile.gi f"' class='bbc_emoticon' alt=':)' />

Great credit must be given to Albert Nozaki for all his incredible designs & detail work, WOTW would not have been the same film without him.

After working on George Pal's "War of the Worlds", Albert Nozaki, who's war machine designs were closely inspired by Chesley Bonestell's original sketches, would later lend some of his work to the less spectacular but still entertaining "Robinson Crusoe Of Mars".

Another important wunderkind of special effects who worked on War Of The Worlds, The Outer Limits and brought his talents to this film as well, was director Byron Haskin 1899-1984

http://computergeniu...-Mars-168787470

trailer

http://www.criterion.com/films/821

Edit: Thought I would add some detail to keep the whole time frame thing in perspective.

Land of the Giants (TV Series 1968-1970)

More info & pics:

.php

http://www.cloudster...pindriftTop.htm

http://www.iann.net/giants/spindrift/

Lost in Space (TV Series 1965–1968) (preview)

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The Invaders (TV Series 1967–1968) (intro)

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Star Trek (TV Series 1966–1969) blooper reel

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This is some current CGI animated stuff I found that looks impressive - I encourage you to check it out:

Star Trek: Aurora--Complete (Official Site)

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I've been rolling it around in my head and I like the idea of the sudden discovery of the Hyperdrive sparking a massive Interstellar War... between the slower than light colony ships already on the way to distant stars and the Hyperdrive equipped Claim Jumpers...

The Megastructures already built were just too vulnerable to attack and were almost all destroyed during the war. That's why you'll almost never find a Ringworld or Beanstalk in Pioneer... but they'd be everywhere in the Pre-War Era. <img src="' http://spacesimcentral.com/forum/public/style_emoticons//wink3.gi f"' class='bbc_emoticon' alt=';)' />

All these are either from Eclipse Phase books or related art, so some is CC license, but not fully compatible...

Olympus Mons Beanstalk...

Or floating cities in Venus' upper Atmosphere...

Before being linked back together by FTL, the different settled systems would potentialy have diverged quite a bit and adapted to their local environments with artificial means. Easy mixing of the entire human genepool would reinforce a tendancy back towards a standard "baseline" but with lots of populations isolated by decades of travel time, each capable of radical self modification with mature biotech and nanotech and all living in dramatically different environments... you could end up with some very strange humans very quickly!

Those are some awesome pics and ideas for bases - (also, XLNT way to have a girlfriend jus' 'hang around <img src="' http://spacesimcentral.com/forum/public/style_emoticons//wink3.gi f"' class='bbc_emoticon' alt=';)' />

The 'bean stalk' analogy - refers to a space elevator? (if so, don't they technically need to sit over a planet's poles? Not that that should necessarily be a limiter for dream tech)

IMO, space elevators would likely be one of the more logical features of a society wanting to expand into space. Consider that space elevators would arguably be one of the most efficient means of transporting goods/people into orbit. Any new player would not get a ship that had the potential to deliver him to orbit. He might get a ship (or a ride on one) to deliver him to the space elevator.

From there he would take the ride up the elevator to low Earth orbit. Only from there, would a player be able to buy a small ship.

The small ship wouldn't be able on it's own to do any more than travel between spacestations (maybe able to deal with the low gravity of the moon - but no more). After a player has accumulated enough money for a larger more capably engined ship, he would be able to accomplish full planetary landings and take-offs.

Well a Space Elevator in the "traditional" sense usually needs to be over the equator and whatever planet / moon it is connected to needs to be spinning fast enough for there to be a geostationary orbit close enough to the surface to reach with a cable. Venus does not spin fast enough, for example.

I use the term Beanstalk is a generic term for any vertical megastructure meant to grant access to space... it includes Tensile Structures like Space Elevators as well as Compressive Structures like Space Fountains.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_fountain

For planets or cities without the right conditions for a proper elevator there's always the plain old mass driver <img src="' http://spacesimcentral.com/forum/public/style_emoticons//icon_e_smile.gi f"' class='bbc_emoticon' alt=':)' />

I remember reading about mass drivers potentially being considered to launch stuff out to Lagrange points, where they would get scooped up by collectors. Always though Pioneer should eventually have something like this (if for nothing else - target practice)

Updated: I received a request for a decal that I put on my Interstellar Shuttle mod of an Orion slave girl:

(not my work but sweet, nonetheless)

Green_Space_Girl_Betty_by_adventurevisual converted to ship decal

To make it easier for those who don't know where to put decals, I made a 'drop-in' mod compatible version

GreenSpaceGirlBetty mod will replace decal_c.png (to remove any decal simply remove that decal mod)

download here: http://www.mediafire...4uin1485yy8d46y

Goddess 'Orion Girl' seemed so lonely all by her little green self - I thought she should have some friends 'over' for company <img src="' http://spacesimcentral.com/forum/public/style_emoticons//icon_e_smile.gi f"' class='bbc_emoticon' alt=':)' />

Yvonne_Craig_Star_Trek TOS mod replaces decal_b.png

download here: http://www.mediafire...43t9d7gfkt2u8mp

Barberella - definately Goddess & appropriate for the period. (1968) - maybe an interesting decal.

Barbarella mod replaces decal_j.png

download here: http://www.mediafire...5isvbcb370cb4ay

... And than one from my Pvt. stock <img src="' http://spacesimcentral.com/forum/public/style_emoticons//wink3.gi f"' class='bbc_emoticon' alt=';)' />

Taarna's got a brand NEW ride. (+ xtra decal )

*special* ... Put a bit of time into this personal fav. I used the original Taarna image as base. Than tried to construct a rocket-sled into the scene at a reasonable perspective. Had to use 'some' artistic licence in recreating any obscured anatomy from Taarna's source picture. (included) Decals images are flipped right to left, to more likely face the forward direction of a ship (since most decals appear are on the left hand side of a pilot's ship)

Taarna mod replaces decal_g & decal_h

download here: http://www.mediafire...zzzmp8645q7c4cc

..and another:

Local BC island girl Pamela Anderson

Pam Anderson mod will replace decal _e

download here: http://www.mediafire...mv3cuuaf749e831

Anyways, back to that appropo seguay for the previous girl hanging upside down <img src="' http://spacesimcentral.com/forum/public/style_emoticons//wink3.gi f"' class='bbc_emoticon' alt=';)' />

Some other related links:

http://www.goingfast...rewsicarus.html

http://www.foundatio...read.php?t=3551

http://www.cloudster...fAaccounts.html

http://www.goingfast...icarus/faq.html

Back in '68 space movies were starting to get some traction again, although no one in the entertainment industry seemed to want to take on the challenge of producing a film that might soon become outdated by real events. Apollo was well underway and people were starting to catch space fever all over again.

CRAFT CREW LAUNCH DATE ORBITS DURATION

APOLLO 1 Grissom, White, Chaffee N/A N/A N/A

APOLLO 7 Schirra, Eisele, Cunningham 1968-10-11 163 Earth 11 days

APOLLO 8 Borman, Lovell, Anders 1968-12-21 10 Lunar 6 days

Fortunately, Stanley Kubrick was not your average director and was able muster the financing required for such an undertaking.

Arthur C. Clark was brought on board as collaborator and sounding board to Kubrick's visions.

Another important ingredient to the success of the project was space artist Robert McCall, who's paintings were a mainstay of Nasa's

PR department.

Add to this, some of NASA's brightest engineers and scientists being tapped to design REAL spacecraft - including all the support

aspects surrounding their deployment and use. No one had done this before to such a highly technical degree.

When I first laid eyes on a poster for '2001 A Space Odyssey', it was met with great skepticism from me. I had seen all these flashy

type sci-fi poster's before. They would promise an engrossing journey, but would usually leave you feeling it was campy and unrealistic in some way.

2001 changed all that (practically) overnight. Even thought the movie was not initially successful at the box office - it started to

draw steady crowds, largely from the drug counter culture of the time. Kubrick's psychedelic visions of communion with an alien intelligence, was as good if not better than some of the 'liquid light shows' of the era.

Being a mere lad at the time, all I really cared about was the technical achievement of what looked like a truly realistic interpretation of what the future had in store for all humankind.

From Earth to Moon, 2001 A Space Odyssey style. by clavius500

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Some of Robert McCall's paintings:

Robert McCall, (1919-2010)

http://www.fanboy.co...ert-mccall.html

RIP Robert McCall, Picasso of the Space Age

http://motherboard.v...f-the-space-age

2001 A Space Odyssey Reconstructed pt.1

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17 Extra Minutes Of 2001: A Space Odyssey Discovered In Vault

http://www.cinemable...ault-22290.html

2001: a space odyssey; CG discovery

2001:a space odyssey CG Station-5 5 minutes

2001 A Space Odyssey in Celestia part 1

2001 A Space Odyssey in Celestia part 2

2001 A Space Odyssey in Celestia part 3

XLNT 2009 4 part documentary:

2001 A Space Odyssey The Making Of A Myth Part 1 4

2001 A Space Odyssey The Making Of A Myth Part 2 4

2001 A Space Odyssey The Making Of A Myth Part 3 4

2001 A Space Odyssey The Making Of A Myth Part 4 4

2001 Theme song
http://www.youtube.c...&v=QwxYiVXYyVs# !

Some interesting facts paraphrased from: http://en.wikipedia....A_Space_Odyssey )

United States Spacecraft Discovery One

Discovery One is a large, nuclear-powered interplanetary spaceship. Discovery was named after Captain Robert Scott's RRS Discovery, launched 1901; Arthur C. Clarke used to visit the ship when she was moored in London.

Aries Ib

Lunar lander built for providing regular passenger commuting between Earth's orbit and the Moon, provided for travel between the Earth and Space Station V. It is nuclear powered, the high performance of its engines allowing it to make a fast transfer to the moon (at about one day, compared to three days which were necessary for Apollo). It also carries a retractable landing gear.
http://www.modelermagic.com/?p=28285

EVA Pod

The EVA Pod is used for extra-vehicular activity . The Jupiter spacecraft Discovery One carries three of these small, one-man maintenance vehicles. A section of the pod appears briefly in the background in a scene from Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace as a tribute to the film. Also check out: EVA POD http://www.modelermagic.com/?p=36948

Orion III spaceplane

Is a two-stage space shuttle launched on a reusable winged booster. It is equipped with aerospike rocket engines and jet engines for atmospheric flight. In early stages of planning for the film, the spaceplane's engines on the back were designed to break away from the passenger section of the plane.

Shamelessly cropped and reduced:

2001 Orion Space Clipper http://www.modelermagic.com/?p=42468

Space Clipper “Pan Am” Orion http://www.modelermagic.com/?p=28260

Aries 1B - The lander of all landers, IMO.

http://www.scifi-mes...?do=file&id=261
http://www.scifi-mes...?do=file&id=118

Some of the incorporated ORION and ARIES images courtesy Simon Atkinson Creative Arts:
http://www.simonatkinsoncreativearts.com/

Moonbus

A small, low altitude rocket craft meant to be used for quick transportation of passengers and cargo above the surface of the Moon

Space Station V

A large, international, rotating wheel space station used as a transfer point from Low Earth orbit to the moon and other planets. It also functions as an orbital hotel.

The rotating wheel depicted in the movie traces its lineage back to wheeled space station designs by Wernher von Braun and Herman Potocnik, the latter describing such a space station design in his book The Problem of Space Travel - The Rocket Motor (1928). The studio model was reported to be eight feet wide (Bizony) or six feet wide (Agel), and stuffed with tiny lights behind the windows.

THOSE are the kinds of ships I want to fly...

Two stage Nuclear Reactor, low temperature for thermal rocket operation, high temperature for electrical generation to power electric rockets.

The propellant in a thermal rocket is essentially evaporative coolant directed in a specific direction, operating the thermal thrusters will "chill" the reactor core as the reaction mass carries the heat away... giving you an initial burst of high thrust that gradually lowers as the core reaches an equillibrium temperature where the heat generated equals the heat carried away. Working deep in a gravity well you need high thrust but not generally for very long, using orbital mechanics to take advantage of things like the Oberth Effect means you can sometimes actually achieve a higher speed with a less "efficient" engine.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oberth_effect

Of course, for cruising you want a long duration engine... something electromagnetic drives are VERY good at if you can meet the energy requirements.

With a nuclear reactor (or any thermal energy source, concentrated solar for example) the output of the system depends on the delta T, the difference in thermal energy between the "hot" and "cold" parts of your generator. In Space the only way to dump heat without also dumping mass (thermal rocket) is to radiate it away, and radiators work most efficiently at high temperatures... so in order to get a decent delta-T out of a spacecraft reactor you need to run the radiators hot... and the core FRAKING HOT!!

It was one of the things removed from the Discovery in the movie... radiator panels. Ironically they were removed because it was thought that some of the fans would think they were aerodynamic surfaces and would thus think it wasn't "realistic" on a deep space craft...

The ultimate challenge for spacecraft radiators... close approaches to a star. The whole movie Sunshine is based on the idea. They get a lot of things wrong but overall I quite enjoyed it. The ship is the Icarus II, the Icarus I has gone missing...

And close to the Sun...

It's a lot like shielding for relativistic flight, or the Navigational Deflector from Star Trek

And the Aerobrake from 2010 <img src="' http://spacesimcentral.com/forum/public/style_emoticons//icon_e_biggrin.gi f"' class='bbc_emoticon' alt=':D' />

I guess, basically, I think that the armouring requirements of a spacecraft, combined with it's thermal management and mass limitations, means that a medieval style Shield is actually an extremely practical compromise. It's funny, but the more I think about how I would set up the ideal Space Fighter the closer it ends up to something like this

Or maybe this <img src="' http://spacesimcentral.com/forum/public/style_emoticons//wink3.gi f"' class='bbc_emoticon' alt=';)' />

edit. (just some clarification)

Nice info and pics Neural Kernal! That IS some radiator <img src="' http://spacesimcentral.com/forum/public/style_emoticons//nyam.gi f"' class='bbc_emoticon' alt=':nyam:' /> It would be interesting to see an engine with diminishing top thrust in Pioneer. Pioneer should really have a thrust percentage readout 'somewhere' just to give a pilot some idea what he has available in a pinch. (this is for the thrust limiter - some sort of readout for when it's engaged showing percent thrust setting)

Here's an example of what I mean (this could just show you the setting of your thrust limiter at any given moment (or percent number could pop up the moment the thrust limiter is applied).

That wouldn't answer the question of how much thrust power you were able to deliver at any given moment, in the case of atomics - you would ideally require a separate readout for that. (ie: variance & diminishing maximum thrust)

I guess it would depend on how much power variance exists as to how important that reading would be.

The REAL Station V from the film Screenshot: (left size intact)

5 station building; reproduction CG 2001: A Space Odyssey

<a href=""" http://k-hiura.cocol...001cg_82fa.html

<a href=""" http://k-hiura.cocol.../post-5e06.html

Interesting 2001 preproduction painting of a docking bay showing what appears to be, some sort of docking clamp system.

"As the plane banked Dr Floyd could see a dead-straight scar across the flat Florida landscape - the multiple rails of a giant launching track".

According to NASA "Tracks like this could be used to launch vehicles into space in the future".

For zoomed out views and more info:

<a href=""" http://www.teslamoto...on-test-system/

<a href=""" http://mix.msfc.nasa...acts.php?p=3154

A nicely made model of Clavius Base.

This is something I've been working on. The first person who correctly identifies what this is wins a FREE MEAL! (see details)

[attachment=1512:screenshot-20121128-141413.png]

Void where prohibited. Answer must be specific. Some restrictions may apply. Human winners must be eighteen standard years of age or older. Sentient AIs must be running the 3.14159 upgrade or higher. AF-709 models must claim their prize in person. Meal consists of one Diet Steakette and one Cool Cola. Cool Lemon or Cool Orange or Pure Cold Crater Juice may be substituted for Cool Cola if desired. Meal may only be claimed at participating spaceports. Offer not valid in Ursa Minor. Free Meal offer expires Jan 1, 3200.

It seems we are all working to "dress" the last "alpha" of the year.  :santaclaus:

:good:   

Aww, I can't see the picture 🙁

Don't feel alone fluffy I can't see it either (sniff) 🙁

Edit: Marcel, you might like the new Jupiter2 cutaway view I just posted 🙂

Marcel, you've sold the big wheel to DB?  :spiteful:

We have a Winner! Congratulations Vuzz! I don't know what happened to the picture. I've been having trouble posting anything but a thumbnail. Here it is again.

[attachment=1513:screenshot-20121128-141413.png]

You're looking 'up' at pad 3 in this view. I modified the docking sequence so you enter, stop, roll to the docking bay position, then drop 'down' to the pad. The colors are for the blue faction.

Baobobafet, Just checked out the Jupiter 2 and stuff. As I said, it's much bigger inside than the outside. I've always loved that thing for some reason. I had model kits of some of the ships you've posted. The Orion, the Moonbus, the Alien saucer, and of course the enterprise and Klingon cruiser. Here's another model I had.

[attachment=1514:Leif Erickson.jpg]

And a link to the website about it where I got the image.  http://www.projectrho.com/SSC/index.html

I have a suggestion. When you add content to this thread and edit a previous post, it doesn't show up as new content. I suggest you make a new post to alert us to look at it. Thanks again for all the wonderful images!

@marcel,

Nice looking!

Just a quick heads-up, added some early Buck Rogers, EVTFS, and another LIS pic.

Edit:

(newly added, some Flash Gordon Asterite pics and a cool short Buck Rogers vid on Pg1)

Tiny update: Added poster from  'First Spaceship On Venus' Pg1

Just an unabashed attention getter  :haha:

 I removed the Slave1 pic (it will find a new home later) Instead I put in an honorable mention for a series that I think deserves some credit in the evolution and portrayal of spacecraft as well as crew interaction. (page 1)