TITLE: Nighttime Near Saturn
NAME: Michael Burschik
COUNTRY: Germany
EMAIL: Michael.Burschik@gmx.de
TOPIC: The Future
COPYRIGHT: I SUBMIT TO THE STANDARD RAYTRACING COMPETITION COPYRIGHT.
JPGFILE: nns.jpg
ZIPFILE: nns.zip
RENDERER USED: 
    Povray 3.5

TOOLS USED: 
    Saturn data provided by Sigmund Kyrre Aas as@stud.ntnu.no

RENDER TIME: 
    44 minutes

HARDWARE USED: 
    Athlon XP 1600, 256 MB RAM


IMAGE DESCRIPTION: 


This is a view of a few buildings inside an oneill space habitat near
Saturn. Parts of the planet and its rings are visible through the
glass panels of the habitat.


DESCRIPTION OF HOW THIS IMAGE WAS CREATED: 


The planet Saturn and its rings were created using the data kindly
provided by Sigmund Kyrre Aas <as@stud.ntnu.no>, whose written
permission was obtained in advance. All other objects were created by
myself using CSG.

The image is the result of my imagination struggling against my
limited artistic talent and the dictates of plausibility.

First of all, Saturn is probably much too far out from the sun to be a
valid location for this kind of space habitat, and even if it were,
the oneill would have to be oriented towards the sun, otherwise night
and day would only last minutes. But I wanted to put something
interesting in the background, so I ignored all plausibility in this
case.

Originally, I had envisaged a future city in the style of Radebaugh
and others, with art deco skyscrapers, soaring streets and flying
cars. Earlier scenes did contain these elements, but by and by I
became convinced that high speed transport inside an oneill space
habitat was really only necessary along the panels, and that
transportation systems would probably be installed in the hull, rather
than above ground. As a result, a maglev track runs the length of the
habitat in the middle of each panel, and an airship is visible in the
background, but the elevated roads and flying cars had to go.

And what about housing? Would there be skyscrapers in this kind of
space habitat, or would its entire surface be transformed into some
kind of suburbia? Or would housing be relegated to the hull itself,
leaving the surface as a park or nature preserve? The more I think
about it, the less certain I felt about it.

