Artwork from To the Moon Mars and Beyond and The End of the Beginning

[Atlantis]

This is what I do in my spare time at school. These are some pictures of the space craft from a few of my stories.
To the Moon Mars and Beyond:
The first is the first four ships in the OV-3XX series of shuttles, which are a hybrid of the STS and X-15 delta. Instead of aluminum, they have carbon composite airframes with titanium bulkheads. TPS is similar to the shuttle, except with advanced metallic heat tiles in adddition to Nomex blankets. The three engines at the back are actually orbital manuevering engines. They are launched by the Ares V.

THe Pegasus is a  test article built for approach, landing, and glide tests. It has two jet engines mounted at the rear so it can take off and land on its own like the Buran analog.
 
The Olympia being ferried back to KSC from Edwards on a military surplus C-17 carrier aircraft.


In case of an emergency, the nose of the shuttle can be pulled away from a malfunctioning rocket with an escape tower or detach during a Columbia-style reentry contingecy. This a drawing of a launch abort test using a "Little Joe IV."


The End of the Beginning:
The later OV-300 series will piggyback on an unmanned Lockheed satellite carrier shuttle and launch from the Maglev Assist Space Launch facility at Cape Canaveral.

This is the crew of Orion 25 outside of the fictional "Deke's Landing" restaurant.


You can read both of these stories here:
http://www.exisle.net/mb/index.php?s=&showtopic=41335&view=findpost&p=1086924
http://www.exisle.net/mb/index.php?s=&showtopic=41335&view=findpost&p=1126711