Vlatko Juric-Kokic has entered the Grand Space Opera 3D.
Grand Space Opera 3D Entry: Vlatko Juric-Kokic
erlik
#3
I decided to keep this simple.
Two … airplanes? … aircraft? … atmospheric crafts are visiting the site where the former rulers of the planet had one of the cornerstones of their empire - a humongous laser canon used to launch interstellar ships with solar sails. Time: a couple of centuries after the empire fell. Location: the highest mountain on the planet, something similar to Olympus Mons on Mars, and it almost sticks outside the atmosphere. The grey stuff is clouds.
Kemal
#4
Not bad for the starters, Erlik, did not know you are from my country, hehe, go croatia, go 
Spaceships have a Star Trek look to them, is that some kind of ion-cannon overthere ?
Wish you a good luck, sir
erlik
#5
I haven’t seen five eopisodes all together.
the ships are of the Eagle type - the wings will look similar to the drawings of wings. you know, like an arc.
The cannon is laser.
nuclearman
#6
Hmm … your proposed scene raises an interesting question: how much decay would a machine undergo in two centuries if it’s almost sticking above the atmosphere? I’d never stop to thing about that before – what is the life-span of low-orbital space “junk”? If it didn’t re-enter the atmosphere, would it stay basically the same through the millenia?
erlik
#7
Note that I said “almost”.
It is an interesting question.
Lessee: " upper-atmosphere phenomena as gravity waves, airglow and auroral emission rates, noctilucent clouds, and ion drifts, besides basic information about high-level global winds and temperatures."
“The stratosphere extends to about 30 miles above earth, and can itself be subdivided (strato means “layers”) In the lower levels of the stratosphere the temperature remains the same, but in the upper levels the temperature actually increases to roughly the same as that at sea level.”
“The upper atmosphere may also provide a window into the impacts of human-generated emissions of methane, carbon dioxide, and other gases on the lower atmosphere”
In short, it’s much more active than space where you can expect only the damage from micrometeorite dust and bigger rocks. So, not as much damage as at the sea level, but there will definitely be weathering.
Not to mention the battle damage from the last days of the empire. 
nuclearman
#8
Erlik, many thanks for the info! It was a little too late at night for me to start hunting for an answer, so I very much appreciate that you took the time to look it up and post. Best of luck on putting your scene together; hopefully you can also give us some close-ups of the completed laser canon, too!
Coltzero
#9
lo erlik,
nice idea, and the info is also cool :bounce:
iam sure its gonna be a fine project
-Freerk
electroglyph
#12
I seem to remember every time that I’ve seen documentaries on Everest there is always a constant wind. Flags left get tattered. Everything is constantly getting sandblasted. While I might not expect rust per se, I would expect corrosion. I do materials testing on superalloys. What you think of is rust is actually oxidation. Water helps it along because the nature of water is dipolar and it induces a charge and helps chemical reactions. You accomplish the same results with any combination of oxygen, electrical activity or charge, temperature or energy of the system, and time.
Over two centuries expect any metal to be oxidized. Rust for irons greens for copper or nickle superalloys. If glass hasn’t shattered outright it will be crazed and warped.
RobertJ
#13
Glass can last a very long, it will change color over time. But as will everything else, best conservation is achieved when materials get burried quickly. But indeed how long will such structures hold, what are the conditions in the atmosphere, wind, rain, even sunlight or the lack of it.
On earth the Pyramids are quite old, but off course there is not much left of their great grandure they had when where just finished, only the basic building materials are still here.
But then this is a space opera, there are probably exotic materials used in that orbital cannon, it probably last longer than anything that we know
erlik
#14
Hey, electroglyph and RobertJ, interesting info.
I think that the plateau and the canon will be too far away to see much detail.
But, as usual, I will know that only when I start assembling the final picture.
Mahray
#15
Have you thought of just having a stub of a cannon left? The only problem is that it might not be apparent what it actually was. Also, if it’s in the distance then it might be hard to see anyway.
system
#16
Promissing, realy you make it simple but fantastic, if you take your time to consider rocking design for those two spaceships, and their colony you will turn this to amazing image,
this is nice idea and it is bit different than others’.
:applause:
erlik
#17
Thanks. I’m working on the models, but I have to work for living, too, so it’s not as fast as I’d wish.
I’ll post a rough model when I get home later.
erlik
#19
Jane’s 2864.
This is basically an interceptor, which also serves as a patrol craft.
It has the twin engines for regular flying and it has four smaller thrusters for floating in the upper reaches of the atmosphere, where it waits for its prey and then dives down after them. Like a hawk, but only on a much bigger scale.
I wanted a cross between a fighter jet and an orbital craft. At the same time, I wanted something that looks like a cross between a real bird of prey and that hyppopotamus grace of a spaceship in space.
The craft still lacks a lot of details: the body is just a placeholder untill I model the real one, the joint between the thrusters and the rest of the … cowling, I guess, is not finished, there are no weapons and so on.