Space art that caught my eye

[John]

Every now and then I like to browse around the web looking at the work of artists that produce pieces related to astronomy, sci-fi or fantasy. I've always enjoyed the art of the likes of Chesley Bonestell, Roger Dean, Rodney Matthews, Chris Foss and David A Hardy. The last named artist illustrated the wonderful "Challenge of the Stars" books authored by Sir Patrick Moore which I found in my local library as a teenager.

I recently came across this rather nice work by David A Hardy  called "Skiing on Europa" which I have not seen before. I wonder if "Ski Sunday" will ever be broadcast from such an exotic location ? 

 

[Charic]

There were some street artists in Benidorm, we made the  trip  a few Years ago. They produced images that looked like they were from Alien worlds, using nothing more than a few masking shields, news paper, car paint and artistic skill.
I  still have an image (hardcopy) some where?

[SilverAstro]

Interesting thought !

Could you ?! To ski on water ice there needs to be sufficient localized pressure to melt a thin layer of liquid water between the two surfaces. Would there be sufficient gravity to create the pressure one wonders ? Would there be too great a temperature differential (0C to whatever the Europa surface/ski surface temp is) perhaps ?

Assuming the above could be realised, with no atmosphere would there be sufficient other resistance to prevent the intrepid skier from achieving escape velocity with a mighty thrust of his ski stick thingies ??!

 

[northward]

13 minutes ago, SilverAstro said:

Interesting thought !

Could you ?! To ski on water ice there needs to be sufficient localized pressure to melt a thin layer of liquid water between the two surfaces. Would there be sufficient gravity to create the pressure one wonders ? Would there be too great a temperature differential (0C to whatever the Europa surface/ski surface temp is) perhaps ?

Assuming the above could be realised, with no atmosphere would there be sufficient other resistance to prevent the intrepid skier from achieving escape velocity with a mighty thrust of his ski stick thingies ??!

 

Hell of a jump though! And I'm sure we'd all be able to watch it on their GoPro!

[SilverAstro]

28 minutes ago, northward said:

Hell of a jump though! And I'm sure we'd all be able to watch it on their GoPro!

Hehee yes ( 'though I had to google what a GoPro was !)

actually I was contemplating the skier being on the flat, hadn't thought of a ski jump.

but would that help ? the skier's apoapsis would still only be the same altitude as the top (start/launch) of the jump ramp. He would still need a deltaV from his ski sticks (or his knee joints / leg muscles ! ) ?   ? too late at night for this ! I blame  @John

Edit : ah yes but that would be ok, with no atmos. drag the altitude of the ski ramp would be a good enough orbital height

Ok I'll go to me bed now

[Knight of Clear Skies]

I'm going to call fake on that picture, it was actually taken on Earth with a realllllly long telephoto lens.

7 hours ago, northward said:

Hell of a jump though! And I'm sure we'd all be able to watch it on their GoPro!

I don't know, we might get bored and switch it off half way through.  For the ultimate in extreme sports I can recommend Titan, where the thick atmosphere and low gravity would allow a man in a chicken suit to fly by flapping their arms.

[Astrobits]

Returning to the original post, I have four original oil paintings done by David Early. David is not a well known artist but was a member of Luton Astronomical Society in the 1970's at the same time as me. He tried to paint as accurately as possible from the knowledge and best guesses at the time. One of my paintings was a commission from me and one was presented to me by said society when I left to go to live in South Africa. They still hang on my walls.

Regrettably David is no longer with us.

Nigel