Moon (and satellite) - Drawtober Part 2, Day 14

(Description fleshed out on 2023-10-20 06:59 Eastern Daylight Time) As is indicated by the title, this is a drawing for #DrawtoberPart2, specifically #DrawtoberDay14 "Moon". Apparently DeviantArt staff's cheating me out of the former badge through contradictory information, and less-than-nuanced support for apartheid state Israel in their present war with Palestinian militants (coupled with, for the first time I can remember, a disabling of comments on their journal)† wasn't enough to stop me coming back to get the next badge. ...  

This was a last-minute drawing and submission,‡ so last-minute that the initial description of this deviation was just "Last minute drawing.", with it actually being submitted at 2023-10-20 02:58 Eastern Daylight Time (2023-10-19 11:58 Pacific Daylight Time). The time from me firmly deciding "Yes, I'm going to try and get something new out for Drawtober 2023" and this drawing's submission took less than 1 hour and 30 minutes. I chose the prompt "Moon" as it was easier for me than most of the other prompts and I already had some ideas on what to depict. Initially, I thought to depict Àli Dãn Celec/Celicia's barren moon Gehwvlaxís eclipsing its further habitable moon Merém, a partial reference to the annular eclipse (which I partially saw) that happened presumably non-coincidentally on the prompt day as well as that that event is considered particularly inauspicious (and thus spooky) for many Celecre'al. However, I rejected that‖ due to geography, perspective, and recognizability reasons—while I have a potential reference for at least Merem's geography, I could not project it at the distance I wanted to; the geography I would hastily draw would be canonized; and its real glory could only be captured in color, which would have inherently needed more time—and so I came up with this scene of a satellite orbiting our own Moon Luna.

As you can see, this image depicts the far side of the Moon—while time constraints may have influenced how well I could depict it, it should still be possible to determine where the viewpoint/the satellite is hovering over and at what altitude. (If you can within ±10° latitude and longitude and 10% altitude... you win an award! ). 

The pictured satellite is built in the shape of an icosahedron, each triangle being composed of solar panels and/or radiators with a small hatch in the center for scientific instruments. Its virus-like appearance is accentuated by RCS thrusters poking out at the vertices; powerful penta-groupings at the "top" and "bottom" vertexes to control pitch, yaw, heave, sway, and surge; and opposing thrusters on the others mostly to control roll, yaw, and also heave and sway. The drives that motivated this design were to maximize external symmetry and thus (passive) stability, controllability, and (if desired) orientation flexibility, while also reducing costs and complexity versus a truly spherical spacecraft. The space probe has at least 2 of its scientific instruments out at the moment—a fixed camera and a magnetometer boom, presumably taking stellar images and measuring the near-unmodified Solar magnetic field (both the Moon and Earth are behind the spacecraft relative to the Sun, as seen in the lighting) to calibrate both instruments. It's also surging backwards (or rather radially) for some reason.

I imagine this space-craft to have been launched using an "IURIL"/Enoch Phase-1 launch vehicle in the late 1930s in my alternate history It's a Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow (or as I'm now considering calling it, X-to-the-x) as part of the World Rocketry and Spaceflight Society's early lunar program, but I am as yet unsure exactly when and what the exact identity of this probe was/will be.

I do notice several elements of this drawing that I could improve upon if I had more time—for instance, the blending in the space backdrop is very rough and could use more thumb time or the use of paper rods, I could probably increase the dynamic range of the Moon and add convincing stars if I got out a smaller eraser, and the lighting for the capture was very "warm", dim, and sub-optimal (though the sepia does give it a sort of spookiness). In fact, I may well make changes to this in the future.§ However, I also notice things I may not have been able to correct given my present, largely-naïve artistic abilities; for example, while the "halo" around the spacecraft was partially a result of the low precision of my backdrop infill process, I felt I effectively had to retain it to keep the spacecraft recognizable. I think I'd need to work on realistic shading and maximizing dynamic range to make that doable... though part of it may also be due to the drawing's monochromatic nature and small size, which is partially due to skill/preference (I find it difficult to scale drawn things up, and enjoy fine work) and partially due to time.

†Thankfully, at least, it appears the Exclusives aren't as bad as I thought; there an expansion of the Adoptable system, not NFTs.

‡On one hand, this was due to poor time management; on the other hand, it was also due to indecision, the pressure was kind of exhilarating, and I want to show to myself that art needn't take a lot of time to break my inhibitions around it.  

‖Don't worry, I'll revisit that eventually.  

§I wonder, is it possible to replace a Sta.sh submitted deviation's image while retaining a copy of the original submitted at the original time?  I want to do what I did with my Enoch Phase-2 Craft and LV 2018-09-04 drawing (Geez, I need to {make an} update {for} it/it's description...), but in a more... Data Hoarder-y fashion.