Delicious Cosmic Creations

11 months ago

The space age began in earnest with the development of the V2 rockets in Germany during World War 2. The brain behind their design, German engineer Werner Von Braun, was a space travel advocate and later headed the American mission that saw the first man put on the moon. The design of those early ships was practical and served the sole purpose of carrying men into space and bringing them back safely. Images of those early ships show the hardware-heavy design with large buttons, dials, switches, tubes, levers, and so on. This is space-age Bauhaus in which form follows function to a T.

The Apollo 15 Service Module, NASA

Cockpit of the command module of Apollo 11, Smithsonian Institution/Eric Long, CC0

The design of the Space Shuttle in the 1970s showed a better sense of aesthetics, but it was still highly functional. It showed improvements throughout the years until the demise of the program. Now that the private sector is involved in space flights, and tourism promises to be a lucrative industry, the newer generations of spaceships in development by the likes of SpaceX and Blue Origin will no longer be just for business but also for pleasure. They will be designed to expand the senses and get the maximum neuro-vestibular thrills by taking advantage of the vast overview vistas and the micro-gravity environment.

I recently saw @juliakponsford's unofficial entry to the Cosmic Creations community contest with an illustration of a mothership NFT that sports a beautiful flower design. This got my gears going. I am used to thinking of spaceship design in terms of its utility as a weapon or transportation system, along with the heavy tech necessary to make them go- warp drives, rocket engines, weapon systems, and all that testosterone-laden aspects of a ship’s design that make boys go crazy. But the design of @juliakponsford's ship was elegant and focused on the aesthetics of the ship not its technical prowess. Seeing these blooming ships made me think about the olfactory senses, which rarely anyone mentions as a feature of a spaceship:

The most fragrant mothership in the galaxy courtesy of @juliakponsford. Maybe getting abducted won't be so bad. https://t.co/YonxTzN5B5
— litguru (@litguru23) June 14, 2023

As the new tourism frontiers opens up in high orbit, spaceships will not just be used to ferry passengers up and down but also entertain them. The design (inside and out) will be playful like those of @juliakponsford's mothership. The future spaceship will be a work of art. Inspired by this fantastic creation, I generated a few images with 'skeuomorphic' designs related to taste. If you’re like me, you probably have a few favorite foods that make your mouth water just thinking about them. So using stable diffusion, I generated several pieces that illustrate spaceships in the shapes of different food items/dishes. I hope you enjoy them, and thank you @juliakponsford for the inspiration.