Circum Lunar Accelerator Rail 3D model

The Circum Lunar Accelerator Rail is a generic payload launcher on an electrodynamic track with future projected speed capacity within fractions of the lightspeed. The largest application of the CLAR became the interstellar Locust probes, a massproduced vehicle for long reach exploration.

The specially built Carriage is the accelerator vehicle for the probes, and carries it's own telemetry devices. Discardable attachment wings are pyrotechnically rejected during launch phase. The Locust probe is a complex with extensive radiometric equipment, a telescope, retractable tape antennas, can carry exploration robots and has a multifunctional sail that is used both for breaking, radio antenna and solar energy collector. Each probe carries a postaccelerator ion drive. The probes are energised by compact ejectable nuclear sources.

Two file versions provided that are different: Mental Ray version (ready to render), face count given is for this version without counting moon landscape, face count with moonscape is 719092 faces. Standard Materials verson, rendered with standard Scanline mode, good for converting to realtime graphics, has lower poly count.

Two levels of detail provided for the track. Objects have specular, AO and bump maps, AO lying in UV2 channel. A file version without baked AO provided. Fast rendering in default Max scanline renderer with a raytraced light. Main textures are 1024x1024 and 2048x2048 TGAs. The ground is alpha-channel based and does not need subdivision or displacement to render. Layered PSDs provided for easy customisation of materials.

Concept and design by the artist.

3D Studio Max 9 file.