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FUTURES:
Winner of Sir Arthur Clarke Award for 'Best Written
Presentation', 2005
FUTURES :
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Subtitled '50 YEARS IN SPACE' this is a modern update of David Hardy's original 1972 book with Sir Patrick Moore, Challenge of the Stars. Much of the new art has been created digitally, but there are also new paintings. Now revised and reissued in paperback as simply 50 YEARS IN SPACE (2006).
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"David Hardy's Space Art is unique. He creates his own special kind of virtual reality; through his astounding vision and technique we glimpse landscapes in worlds where Man's foot has never trod. One of my most treasured possessions is an original painting by David Hardy of a total eclipse in Chile, which we attended together. It is noticeable that David's painting captures the awesome beauty of the occasion far better than any photograph I have seen. So it is in these pages, where, through David's visionary art, we clearly 'see' the beginnings of the fulfilment of Man's dreams of Space. Futures is a fitting testament to David's long standing collaboration with Sir Patrick Moore, who, through his world record-breaking The Sky at Night BBC series, has inspired generations of British astronomers. In the pages of this wonderful book, these two men take us out to the stars ~ and beyond." Dr Brian May, Queen Guitarist and Astronomer |
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| One of the interesting developments at present is electric propulsion or 'ion drive'. This is far more elegant than 'brutal' chemical rockets, and while its thrust is lower it can operate for long periods, so is faster over a period of time. ESA's SMART-1 lunar probe is the first example of its use since NASA's Deep Space 1 in 1998. | ) |
| On Jupiter's moon Callisto is an area of weird, eroded peaks or pinnacles, as imaged by Galileo. They are composed of ice with some darker material. While only about 300 ft (100 m) high, they would form a spectacular landscape. |
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| Jupiter has immensely strong magnetic fields, so it is no surprise that it also has aurorae at its poles. They would be brightest to a jovian with ultra-violet or infra-red eyesight, but to humans would appear mainly pinkish-red, due to the hydrogen H-alpha wavelength. |
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| Saturn's small satellite Mimas has been struck by an asteroid which almost broke it apart, but formed an 80-mile (130 km) crater ~ over a quarter of the moon's diameter ~ with a large central peak. Mimas is made of almost solid ice. | ) |
| A possible future comet lander eclipses the Sun as it fires its retrorockets. Jets of gas and dust erupt as the surface is warmed by the solar radiation; rocks and debris from previous eruptions shadow the surface, leaving them perched on spires of ice. |
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| The impact of a very large asteroid (or comet nucleus) on one of our continents would not only wipe out all human life within a wide radius, but ultimately almost all life on Earth ~ just as did the one which caused the extinction of the dinosaurs 65 million years ago. Here the impact is at night, with the glowing lights of cities, soon to be extinguished. The only life to survive may be bacteria living kilometres down in the crust, or at ocean bottoms. . . |
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