Efflam Mercier is a Concept Artist working in entertainment, but a new interest for space that takes him on night-long journeys through the fascinating world of space engineering.
Born in France in 1996, Efflam immersed himself in sci-fi novels and french comics, but also teaching himself how to use CGI early on.
After studying Industrial Design in High-School, he started out in visual effects as a 3D artist and animation studios in Paris, and later transitioned to concept art. Efflam is now working in Los Angeles, building rich & complex fictional worlds for Video Games and Film.
Always trying to expand on what he knows, Efflam often reads scientific papers, (sometimes emailing the authors). One of these emails led him to work with Andreas Hein (i4is researcher) on creating visualisation of various new probe concepts. His interest in Space has led him to study Aerospace Engineering through an online course from Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne, and he intends to continue on that trajectory and take many more courses in the future.
On his free time he is also writing a Science fiction Novel, regularly seeking feedback from various scientists in order to “get dat science right”.
Scientists and engineers all over the world are exploring the possibilities of miniaturisation to reduce the cost of survey and data gathering from low earth orbit, but who knows, maybe one day we could send some to other planets, or even other stars systems!
They would be deployed from a Cubesat at 300km altitude, their low ballistic coefficient assuring a safe lifetime of only 2 months and an assured destructive re-entry.
The image on the right is a concept based on Andreas Hein's scientific paper "Artificial Intelligence Probes for Interstellar Exploration and Colonization". Note how the heat dissipation radiators follow the inverse square law (decay of irradiance) as it gets further away from the heat source (circular AI payload).
Efflam also clearly likes exploring silly ideas.
