Arcadia Street

09/05/2020

Coronavirus green on black No. 1

06/05/2020

24/04/2020

Coronavirus red on blue No. 2

12/02/2019

Planets beyond our solar system

12/02/2019

Brown dwarfs, substellar objects and failed stars

18/11/2018

Light sail near brown dwarf - No. 3

Speculative illustration of an interstellar light sail probe near a brown dwarf.

This interstellar probe hosts a 500 meter umbrella-like sail that exploits the pressure of photons from the sun and laser light directed from the Earth as an efficient form of propulsion. Accelerated to a velocity of 15,000 km per second (0.05% the speed of light) this probe could leave our solar system and reach a brown dwarf 6 light years away in about 120 years.

In this image the light sail probe is near a brown dwarf with a turbulent atmosphere emitting orange and magenta visible light.

18/11/2018

Parker Solar Probe near Sun - No. 2

Speculative illustration of NASA's Parker Solar Probe approaching the Sun.

Launched from the Earth on 12 August 2018, the Parker Solar Probe is a NASA robotic spacecraft en route to probe the outer corona of the Sun. It will approach to within 9.86 solar radii (6.9 million kilometers) from the center of the Sun and will travel, at closest approach, as fast as 690,000 km/h. The mission is expected to last about 7 years.

The Parker Solar probe is 3 meters tall while the thermal protection system (TPS) has a maximum diameter of 2.3 meters. The FIELDS magnetometers antenna extends about 3 meters from the base of the spacecraft.

16/11/2018

Robotic exploration of worlds beyond our solar system

02/11/2018

Speculative illustrations featuring Nasa's proposed Lunar Orbital Platform-Gateway (LOP-G) lunar-orbit space station.

23/10/2018

Space habitat in low Earth orbit No. 1

In this speculative illustration a crewed habitat, or small space station, orbits the Earth at an altitude of about 250 miles.

This habitat is composed of two modules connected in the middle by docking ports. On the left is a hard-walled habitat similar to the modules that make up the pressurized environments of the International Space Station, while on the right is soft-walled inflatable habitat that is collapsed and folded during launch, and then once in orbit inflated like a balloon with a pressurized and breathable atmosphere. Both modules provide a comfortable shirt-sleeve, albeit weightless, environment for several astronauts. Such a configuration could one day be amenable to space tourism.

The total length of the structure is 65 feet while the inflatable habitat has an external diameter of about 30 feet. The pair of paddle-like solar voltaics has a total spread of 50 feet.

22/10/2018

22/10/2018