The Workhorse by NefariousDrO
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No AI - This artwork was created entirely by hand or with traditional digital tools.
Description
As a science-fiction space-nerd, the hardest thing to reconcile is some unpleasant truths about space. And how awful it is on the human body. The hard truth is that most of the exploration, at least for the near future, is going to have to be by drones, probes, or whatever you want to call non-human robotic things. I wish it was US who were doing it, but there's some ugly limits.
So I find myself imagining drones and probes, and what would they look like?
This is a slightly different POV angle on a model I posted earlier, but I'm still tinkering with it, for now.
Model built in Bryce 6.5 out of primitives. Most of the textures are my own, with a few presents. View of Earth come courtesy of NASA's latest weather (and more!) monitoring "EPIC" probe (aptly name, in my NOT HUMBLE opinion)
Starscape was made in Photoshop, nebula comes courtesy of Mother Nature's amazing cloud-formations.
As always, comments, critiques, and suggestions are definitely welcome.
Really, if you see something you don't like, or have an idea for improving it, I would be most appreciative. I can only grow so much, as an artist, on my own, and critiques and suggestions always help me stretch my "wings" a bit further.

Comments (10)
What's not to like with this image? and you pointed out the harsh truth about exploring beyond our solar system - probes must be used and somehow develop a means of better communication between the probe and earth: waiting for a signal that can only travel at the speed of light (it is the law!) can be limiting in that there may be no one around to receive it... ; sub-space or super-space communication MUST be developed to improve the exploration process.
I have to agree with Mike about what's not to like.. This is to use an already over-used term..... EPIC.
The only suggestion - or challenge, really - I might have would be to maybe put some solar panels on it somewhere. I'm imagining something like the solar panels on the Soyuz spacecraft. Of course if this thing is going into deep space, it might need a nuclear-powered generator like they use on Curiosity.
Great model and all made in Bryce, which is awesome. Isn't there a typo - Bryce 6.5? There is Bryce 4, 5, 5.5, 6.0, 6.1, 6.3, 7.0 and 7.1 all of which I have installed, but no 6.5.
Oops. I did indeed make a mistake on the versions, alas. This was Bryce 6.1, not 6.5. Between Bryce, Adobe, and all of the other upgrades (You probably don't want to hear my rant about those!) I mixed that one up pretty good. Thanks for catching it, BryceHoro!
beautiful work with Bryce.
Fantastic Work,
One of your best models.
Hmmm... I really like the design, but if it's going far out solar panels would be a bit of a waste. It would probably have a reactor, in which case it would need heat sinks. Overall, I like it!
With the fleet that you're preparing you'll almost conquer a Galaxy! (LOL) Excellent !
ahI wish I could live to see where humankind can get...I wish I wish.Great image