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Description
Part of the depressingly pragmatic universe I like to call FINITE EGRESS.

Icarus Station, sited on the sunward face of the tidal-locked planetoid Daedalus, orbits in close proximity to the blue supergiant Beta Orionis.

Daedalus sits so close to its star that visitors to Icarus often feel they could reach out and touch the fiery surface - as, occasionally, some unlucky travellers do.

Located in the Orion System, almost 800 light years distant, Icarus Station sits on the border of explored space - end of the line, for now.

With travel limited to sub-light speeds, expansion is slow, and the high velocity slingshot and braking manoeuvres required to get between star systems burn exorbitant amounts of fuel. Nobody goes anywhere without making sure there's a pit stop on the way.

Icarus itself consists of a tower topped by a small toroid habitat and docking station, covered in high-efficiency energy cells capable of absorbing and converting massive portions of the stars thermal output.
Using a portion of this energy, the station projects a magnetic 'funnel' several miles from its tip, siphoning whatever molecules it can from the endless stellar winds pouring off of the surface of the star, sorting and splitting the various elements into surrounding storage tanks.

Utilizing industrial scale molecular synthesizers and the lions share of its collected energy, Icarus is able to produce whatever is needed for weary travellers on their way out into the deep dark, from food to the precious antimatter fuel that makes life out on the edge of civilization possible.

It's dangerous and lonely work, and for that reason few ever stay longer than they absolutely have to. Even as a crucial regional travel hub, the speed limitations of the universe mean visitors are few and far between.
The hazy, stellar-matter choked sky often causes disorientation amongst pilots, after months or years of traversing black, empty space, to see a ghostly glowing trail following the contours of their ships, echoing every twist and turn.

Tours of duty upon stations such as Icarus tend not to be repeated, as the experience leaves the majority of the crew feeling rather, well.. blue.

---

I lost count how many images went into producing this - initially I had the idea for the tower, without really knowing what I would use it for.
Eventually I hit upon the idea of making it into some kind of planetary station, though by that point I had little time to work on it. Over something like half a year I've occasionally picked this image up again to try and finish it, but there was always something that seemed off, so I'd put it down again and tell myself I'd come back to it soon.

I still think it needs a lot of work (I'm not particularly happy with the ships, but they received comparatively little attention since they station and setting were the main features).
I just decided enough was enough, and I should get the image out there - I may come back to it at some point.

At a guess I'd say somewhere around 15 images were used to produce the station and surrounding storage tanks.
9 more for the additional vehicles and ships, and 4 for the background items including the planet, starfield, and star, for a total of roughly 28 images used.

Many of the images used in this piece were obtained through Google Images.
No official photo stock was used.

I'd like to give credit where credit was due, but as I said it's been so long since I started this, I simply don't remember any more.

---

If you want to use this piece in your own work, please ask for permission first.
Make sure you give a reference if you do use it.

---

More of my work, set in the same universe.. check it out!:

Ursa Miner - Mining Ship
Hare's Breadth - Courier Ship

Description
Part of the depressingly pragmatic universe I like to call FINITE EGRESS.

Icarus Station, sited on the sunward face of the tidal-locked planetoid Daedalus, orbits in close proximity to the blue supergiant Beta Orionis.

Daedalus sits so close to its star that visitors to Icarus often feel they could reach out and touch the fiery surface - as, occasionally, some unlucky travellers do.

Located in the Orion System, almost 800 light years distant, Icarus Station sits on the border of explored space - end of the line, for now.

With travel limited to sub-light speeds, expansion is slow, and the high velocity slingshot and braking manoeuvres required to get between star systems burn exorbitant amounts of fuel. Nobody goes anywhere without making sure there's a pit stop on the way.

Icarus itself consists of a tower topped by a small toroid habitat and docking station, covered in high-efficiency energy cells capable of absorbing and converting massive portions of the stars thermal output.
Using a portion of this energy, the station projects a magnetic 'funnel' several miles from its tip, siphoning whatever molecules it can from the endless stellar winds pouring off of the surface of the star, sorting and splitting the various elements into surrounding storage tanks.

Utilizing industrial scale molecular synthesizers and the lions share of its collected energy, Icarus is able to produce whatever is needed for weary travellers on their way out into the deep dark, from food to the precious antimatter fuel that makes life out on the edge of civilization possible.

It's dangerous and lonely work, and for that reason few ever stay longer than they absolutely have to. Even as a crucial regional travel hub, the speed limitations of the universe mean visitors are few and far between.
The hazy, stellar-matter choked sky often causes disorientation amongst pilots, after months or years of traversing black, empty space, to see a ghostly glowing trail following the contours of their ships, echoing every twist and turn.

Tours of duty upon stations such as Icarus tend not to be repeated, as the experience leaves the majority of the crew feeling rather, well.. blue.

---

I lost count how many images went into producing this - initially I had the idea for the tower, without really knowing what I would use it for.
Eventually I hit upon the idea of making it into some kind of planetary station, though by that point I had little time to work on it. Over something like half a year I've occasionally picked this image up again to try and finish it, but there was always something that seemed off, so I'd put it down again and tell myself I'd come back to it soon.

I still think it needs a lot of work (I'm not particularly happy with the ships, but they received comparatively little attention since they station and setting were the main features).
I just decided enough was enough, and I should get the image out there - I may come back to it at some point.

At a guess I'd say somewhere around 15 images were used to produce the station and surrounding storage tanks.
9 more for the additional vehicles and ships, and 4 for the background items including the planet, starfield, and star, for a total of roughly 28 images used.

Many of the images used in this piece were obtained through Google Images.
No official photo stock was used.

I'd like to give credit where credit was due, but as I said it's been so long since I started this, I simply don't remember any more.

---

If you want to use this piece in your own work, please ask for permission first.
Make sure you give a reference if you do use it.

---

More of my work, set in the same universe.. check it out!:

Ursa Miner - Mining Ship
Hare's Breadth - Courier Ship