Spaceship Earth
The Story of Spaceship Earth
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| 2005 3ds max |
In the spring of 2005, I was co-creating an astronomy workshop
for elementary school teachers. The creators consisted of myself,
a fellow engineer from Boeing, and a fifth grade science teacher.
The teacher had some great ideas about the workshop.
One of the things she suggested was to give the teachers attending the workshop
a sheet of pictures they could cut-out to make pins for their students.
The image she suggested was 'Spaceship Earth'.
She showed me a simple sketch her husband had made on a sticky note.
It was an image of the earth with a rocket engine and a nose cone.
I had just completed a course in 3ds Max
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so I welcomed the challenge of making this dream a reality.
3ds Max is a 3-D modeling and animation program
that enables artists to create realistic looking three dimensional models,
apply colors, textures, and lighting to create images and animations.
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Since this was going to be for an astronomy class, I wanted to be as accurate as possible. I used NASA satellite images of the land, The Earth is at the correct tilt and the Moon, |
| 2005 3ds max |
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| The term 'Spaceship Earth' was popularized by Buckminster Fuller1 in his 1963 book, 'Operating manual for Spaceship Earth'. |
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| 2005 3ds max |
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The image was then made to look like a coloring book picture by using 3ds Max's 'Ink 'n Paint' texture. |
| 2005 3ds max |
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| This is the final version given to teachers. It was for kids in grades 3 through 5, so I simplified things to be suitable for coloring. |
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| 2005 3ds max |
(1) Spaceship Earth. (2006, June 28). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 23:14, August 4, 2006,
from http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Spaceship_Earth&oldid=61019461.