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You are here: Home / Who we are / Interstellar artists / David A Hardy

David A Hardy

David A. Hardy is the longest-established space artist in the West, having been first published in 1952, and now works in both traditional and digital media. He is equally well known for his science fiction work, but always insists upon scientific accuracy!

David Hardy was born April 1936 in Bournville, UK. After working in a laboratory and two years in the RAF he started a career in the Design Office of Cadbury’s, where he created packaging art and catalogues for the company’s confectionery. However, in 1950 at the age of 14, he had already started painting space art. He later discovered this was the same year as Alexei Leonov, the Russian cosmonaut/artist, and leading Japanese astronomical artist Kazuaki Iwasaki.

Although basically self-taught he studied briefly at the Margaret Street College of Art in Birmingham and was soon painting for the BIS, where he met the by then prolific BIS Fellow R. A. Smith, who was one of his foremost influences, along with Chesley Bonestell from the USA and early French astronomer-artist, Lucien Rudaux.  He also illustrated his first book – Suns, Myths and Men, with another great member of the BIS, Patrick Moore – in 1954 at the age of only 18.

His first science fiction art was published in 1970, but he has gone on to illustrate hundreds of covers for books and for magazines such as The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction (F&SF) and Analog Science Fiction and Science Fact. His work also appears regularly in magazines such as Astronomy, Sky & Telescope, Astronomy Now and Popular Astronomy, for which he also writes articles. David is known as much for his non-fiction, accurate astronomical paintings in the tradition of Smith and Bonestell, as for his science fiction work, in which he created ‘Bhen’, his famous green alien which lent humour to his vivid astronomical scenes, who has appeared on a dozen issues of F&SF ­– the latest, on his ‘40th anniversary’ and the first digital, in November 2015.

He is European Vice President and former President of the International Association of Astronomical Artists and until recently Vice President of the Association of Science Fiction and Fantasy Artists. He has attended IAAA workshops all over the world and usually exhibits his work in at least two SF conventions each year, including several in the USA and Europe, and has been Artist Guest of Honour at Eastercon, Novacon, Albacon, Stucon, Eurocon and several others. Hardy is one of a handful of artists to have an asteroid named after him: in 2003 asteroid 1998 SB32 was christened Davidhardy, and in August 2015 he was awarded the American Astronautical Society’s ‘Ordway Award for Sustained Excellence in Spaceflight History’ in the category of Artist (the first to receive this). His website is listed below and he may also be found on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn.

His personal website is at www.astroart.org.

David A Hardy's Gallery

Daedalus: Initiated by Alan Bond, Daedalus is the result of the world's first engineering design study, between 1973 – 1977 by the British Interplanetary Society (BIS), for an unmanned spacecraft to reach another star. The star selected was Barnard's Star, 6 light years away. The method of propulsion chosen was nuclear fusion using pellets of a deuterium-helium-3 mix, ignited in a reaction chamber by an electron beam. It developed into Project Icarus, which is ongoing. (Gouache, for Marshall Cavendish, 1984.)

Enzmann Starship: This concept for a manned interstellar mission was proposed by Dr Robert Enzmann in 1964, and modified in 1973. An 11 million tonne ball of frozen deuterium would act as fuel to power thermonuclear powered pulse propulsion units. The deuterium might be obtained from Jupiter, as shown here. The craft would be assembled in Earth-orbit and would be some 600m long. (Acrylics; private collection of K. Long.)

Antenna Galaxy: Outer space contains scenes of violence as well as beauty. Here we see a galaxy collision which has disrupted billions of stars and stellar systems but resulted in this fantastic sky, But it requires an observer (human or alien) to appreciate its beauty. (Acrylics; private collection of R. Bizley.)

Ice World: A planet similar to Saturn’s moon Titan, but orbiting a distant star and not surrounded by dense clouds. The vapour from geysers drifts upwards, to be swept away by stratospheric winds (like Neptune’s Triton), and a ringed planet is in the sky. (Acrylics; private collection of G. Bate.)

New Horizons at Pluto: Hardy's friend, scientist and digital artist Dr Dan Durda, produced a very accurate 3D model of New Horizons, which David combined here with his 1991 painting. The probe revealed 'polygonal structures' in an area called Sputnik Planum – very similar to those seen here – and Charon also has large canyons or crevasses like these!

Project Dragonfly: The winner of the i4is competition ‘Project Dragonfly’ in July 2015 received a signed copy of this digital painting by David A. Hardy, which was also used in connection with the project. Project Dragonfly is an ongoing initiative of i4is to help facilitate deep space missions that utilise laser-sail propulsion. In 2015 a design competition was run which involved seven different teams of university students who had to design a vehicle architecture according to set criteria, such as utilising a 100 GW beam. The winner was a team from the University of Munich and the artistic image above depicts their design.

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Blog

Swarming Proxima

20 November 2023

Adam Hibberd Breakthrough Starshot is the Initative to send a probe at 20% light speed (0.2c) to the nearest neighbouring star Proxima Centauri. But how do we achieve such a high speed? It turns out that if we have an extremely powerful laser (and exponential advances in tech over the next decades will mean that […]

Laser and Sail in Earth Orbit with Evolutionary Neurocontrol

24 October 2023

Adam Hibberd In my last post I explained how my software development, Optimum Interplanetary Trajectory Software (OITS), seems to achieve miracles of intelligent design in a fashion analogous to evolution, though in fact with both cases evidently no intelligence is involved – instead simple mechanisms combined with iteration are at work. This concept stimulated me […]

OITS Takes on Evolution

10 September 2023

Adam Hibberd The more I think about evolution through natural selection the more I see analogues to my software development Optimum Interplanetary Trajectory Software. (I should make it clear at this early stage in my post that OITS does NOT employ a genetic/evolutionary algorithm approach, I shall elucidate below.) You see there is NO intent […]

How Close did ‘Oumuamua Approach Each of the Inner Planets?

2 September 2023

Adam Hibberd A view of the distance of ‘Oumuamua from each of the Inner Planets as it rounded the sun, reached perihelion and then sped away again. Mars was just about as far away as it could possibly have been from ‘Oumuamua. ‘Oumuamua came very close to Earth (around 0.16 au). It came no closer […]

Was Loeb’s Bolide Interstellar?

1 September 2023

Adam Hibberd Loeb’s interstellar spherules have caused controversy and indignation amongst experts in the science community. For those of you not-in-the-know, Loeb travelled to the site of a proposed interstellar meteor (his designation: IM1) which he had identified in a catalogue of bolides held by NASA and then discovered in the ocean tiny metallic blobs he […]

‘Oumuamua – a Sci-Fi Story or Reality?

23 August 2023

Adam Hibberd Let me tell you all a story. It is the story of life and its purpose. I ask you to bear with me here as Project Lyra and ‘Oumuamua will make an appearance eventually – I promise. Many of you will be familiar with the idea that the universe might be some kind […]

‘Oumuamua: The Mystery Unfolds

20 August 2023

Adam Hibberd Those of you who have been following my Project Lyra blogs know that I have over the past year or so done some extensive analysis of ‘Oumuamua’s trajectory. You may refer to previous posts on the i4is website to get an understanding of exactly what I have been up to, or alternatively continue […]

Psyche: OITS has Something to Say

18 August 2023

Adam Hibberd Here’s a mission to asteroid Psyche for you. Initial theories favoured Psyche as a core of a failed protoplanet, containing vast reserves of metals. More recent research, however favour alternative origin theories. Whatever is the case, we are about to discover its true nature and this would be a huge step forwards for […]

Project Lyra: Ignore the outlier and miss an opportunity

31 July 2023

Adam Hibberd Wouldn’t you like an answer to the question: What is ‘Oumuamua? There have been many theories, but there is no real consensus. The only way to answer this would be to send a spacecraft to observe ‘Oumuamua in situ but the total lack of will-power to get this question answered, in my view, […]

The Case of Fireball CNEOS 2017-10-09

28 July 2023

Adam Hibberd Around the middle of last year I read an article by Siraj and Loeb in which they analysed closely a database of bolides (which are meteor fireballs) maintained by NASA-JPL CNEOS (Center for Near Earth Object Studies). In so doing they identified at least one bolide as having an interstellar origin (designated CNEOS […]

Project Lyra: The Mission to Resolve a Mystery

4 July 2023

Adam Hibberd Project Lyra is the study of the feasibility of a spacecraft mission to the first interstellar object to be discovered passing through our Solar System, designated 1I/’Oumuamua. I have now authored and co-authored a total of nine Project Lyra papers. The considerable number of science papers (many now peer-reviewed, several still to be […]

Optimum Interplanetary Trajectory Software: The Secrets Revealed

25 June 2023

Adam Hibberd In the UK Spring of 2017, I derived the theory for solving interplanetary trajectories, which enabled me to develop a powerful software tool for optimising hight thrust spacecraft missions, a tool which I called Optimum Interplanetary Trajectory Software (OITS). For those of you fascinated by mathematics, in particular mathematical formulae, the two equations […]

Laser Sails: Trajectories Using Optimum Interplanetary Trajectory Software

16 June 2023

It struck me a while ago that I have developed this extremely effective tool for solving interplanetary trajectories (OITS), so how would I be able to exploit it for alternative applications – applications which would be beyond its originally intended purpose, that of designing trajectories for chemically propelled spacecraft (and in the process assuming impulsive […]

Mars Ride-Share: an Opportunity Not to be Missed

14 June 2023

Adam Hibberd I was recently discussing with my colleagues across the pond, the potential for mounting a cheap mission to some alternative, yet interesting destination in the inner Solar System, by exploiting a ‘ride-share’ with a more important mission, possibly one organised by NASA or ESA. It struck me that since there have been, and […]

C/2014 UN271 the comet which will NOT collide with the Earth

4 April 2023

Adam Hibberd An Oort cloud comet is composed primarily of dust and ice and has spent most of its life in the far-flung distant reaches of our Solar System (2,000 au to 200,000 au from our Sun). It is eventually nudged inward towards our Sun by gravitational influences such as galactic tides or some passing […]

Project Lyra: Falcon Heavy Expendable

27 March 2023

Adam Hibberd Following on from my previous blog where I studied the capability of the up-coming Ariane 6 4 launcher in terms of delivering a spacecraft on a course to intercept the first interstellar object to be discovered, ‘Oumuamua, I continue this logical progression with analysis of a more powerful launcher, the Falcon Heavy. The […]

Project Lyra: Using an Ariane 6

16 March 2023

Adam Hibberd Ariane 6 is the up-and-coming successor to the old Arianespace workhorse, Ariane 5, and may secure its maiden flight later this year. There will ultimately be two strap-on booster configurations from which to choose, one with two boosters, and the more powerful version with four. I thought it might be worthwhile assessing the […]

Optimum Interplanetary Trajectory Software (OITS)

15 February 2023

Adam Hibberd I started development of this software, OITS, in April 2017 on a holiday near the little town of Cheadle, in the county of Staffordshire, UK. I started from the very basics, deriving the theory during the holiday and continuing shortly thereafter, and then immersed myself in the implementation of the equations I had […]

Music of ‘Oumuamua

30 January 2023

Adam Hibberd If you have a fascination for the mysterious interstellar object ‘Oumuamua and are musically inclined, please check out these two pieces by my musician friend Robin Jax based on recordings of me playing two piano compositions of mine. Whether it be Robin’s neurodivergence, or my own schizophrenia, we have both overcome our respective […]

Things to Come

22 January 2023

Adam Hibberd I sometimes wonder at the short-sightedness of people. The sort of people who scoff and scorn at the far-sighted work which most of my work colleagues and I have dedicated a good deal of our lives to pursue, largely voluntarily. They may argue: We have such and such a problem NOW, how are […]

Project Lyra: Using Jupiter Alone to get to ‘Oumuamua

9 January 2023

Adam Hibberd Here is a ‘pork chop plot’ of missions to ‘Oumuamua using a Jupiter powered gravitational assist (or a Jupiter Oberth Manoeuvre, JOM). Refer to the Figure (1). Essentially, what we have are three coordinates where firstly the horizontal axis shows the launch date, the vertical axis shows the flight duration, and for every […]

‘Oumuamua: The State of Play

30 December 2022

Adam Hibberd In 2017, an interstellar object was discovered, the first ever to be detected. It was observed by the Hawaiian observatory Pan-STARRS, subsequently studied by many telescopes before disappearing into the distance in January 2018. An estimate on the number density, N (how many per unit volume), in interstellar space was determined based on […]

Why the Stars?

24 November 2022

Adam Hibberd November 2022 People may ask the question why we should venture beyond our solar system to explore the stars? Why should we commit precious resources to such an endeavour? I have an answer to this which may to some degree be a personal one. The question boils down to why are we curious? […]

Exploring ‘Oumuamua’s Trajectory – Further Notes

9 November 2022

Adam Hibberd November 2022 In my last blog I reported the progress of my work regarding the intriguing little conundrum of the first interstellar object (ISO) to be discovered, designated ‘Oumuamua, in particular my research into its orbit. In fact ‘Oumuamua is puzzling on many counts and I have also in a previous blog elaborated […]

Exploring ‘Oumuamua’s Perihelion Date

31 October 2022

Adam Hibberd October 2022 This blog may be a bit cheeky but do take heed of the last line before jumping to any conclusions! I’ve been mucking around with ‘Oumuamua’s orbit on my computer lately. Mucking around in the sense of playing with its orbital parameters and seeing what crops up. Those of you who […]

Principium 43

28 November 2023

The November 2023 issue of Principium is now available and has already gone out to subscribers. LEAD FEATUREIRG23: The Summaries FEATURENatural Geo-engineering of the early Earth NEWS FEATURES – IRG 23X-ray and γ-ray Beam Interstellar Communication and Implications for SETI, Applications and Design Guidelines for High Power Lasers in Space Exploration, Silence is Golden: SETI […]

Members Newsletter – November

28 November 2023

I4is Science Fiction AnthologyYou will have seen from earlier Newsletters that we are still looking for short stories for the upcoming “The i4is Science Fiction Anthology.” To ensure a level playing field, submissions must be in Shunn’s Modern Manuscript format, the widespread standard for fiction submissions. https://www.shunn.net/format/story/ (Make sure you click the Modern tab.) Further […]

PROJECT HYPERION: THE HOLLOW ASTEROID STARSHIP – DISSEMINATION OF AN IDEA

1 November 2023

Andreas M. Hein Asteroid starship arriving at an alien world by David A. Hardy Source: https://www.comicartfans.com/gallerypiece.asp?piece=1618045 A large space mirror heats up an asteroid, slowly melting it. Water, which was injected into the center of the body expands, blows up the melted material,  creating the shape of a balloon. After cooling down, rotation is induced […]

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Starship Blog

Swarming Proxima

Laser and Sail in Earth Orbit with Evolutionary Neurocontrol

OITS Takes on Evolution

How Close did ‘Oumuamua Approach Each of the Inner Planets?

Was Loeb’s Bolide Interstellar?

‘Oumuamua – a Sci-Fi Story or Reality?

‘Oumuamua: The Mystery Unfolds

Psyche: OITS has Something to Say

Project Lyra: Ignore the outlier and miss an opportunity

The Case of Fireball CNEOS 2017-10-09

Project Lyra: The Mission to Resolve a Mystery

Optimum Interplanetary Trajectory Software: The Secrets Revealed

Laser Sails: Trajectories Using Optimum Interplanetary Trajectory Software

Mars Ride-Share: an Opportunity Not to be Missed

C/2014 UN271 the comet which will NOT collide with the Earth

Project Lyra: Falcon Heavy Expendable

Project Lyra: Using an Ariane 6

Optimum Interplanetary Trajectory Software (OITS)

Music of ‘Oumuamua

Things to Come

Project Lyra: Using Jupiter Alone to get to ‘Oumuamua

‘Oumuamua: The State of Play

Why the Stars?

Exploring ‘Oumuamua’s Trajectory – Further Notes

Exploring ‘Oumuamua’s Perihelion Date

Principium 43

Members Newsletter – November

PROJECT HYPERION: THE HOLLOW ASTEROID STARSHIP – DISSEMINATION OF AN IDEA

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