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Hi again!
This one has also been a long time coming, I started work on this painting almost 4 months ago! I got sidetracked with making mission patches for my friend’s YT series , doing a gift for a friend, getting sick (and still being sick!), and my laptop screen breaking. Needless to say, I am happy to be back to doing art after so long! Again, my pace of art will be dramatically lower due to my lack of energy these days. Sorry again about all that!
Patreon /Youtube /Tumblr /Redbubble /Deviantart /Ko-fi
Below the bar is a bit of backstory & an image ID.

Backstory:
In 1977, the Global Union of Soviet States/Глобальный Союз Советских Государств (GUSS/GSSG) launched one of it’s most ambitious programs yet; the Tsiolkovsky Program, under the Galaktika Program. Consisting of 4 probes, they were launched 3 weeks apart each during the summer of 1977. They took advantage of the alignment of Gas Giants in order to perform a series of flybys, helping to chart the once unknown depths of the Solar System. They carried very few instruments; a few cameras (including a “citizen science” camera that allowed for the public to vote on targets of interest), a magnetometer, a cosmic ray scanner, and an ultraviolet spectrometer. This was mainly to cut costs so they could afford to include an atmospheric probe on each satellite, allowing for an almost complete understanding of the atmospheres of the outer planets.
Launching 4 successive probes in a row with a highly technical flight path helped the GSSG retain it’s image as a technological powerhouse, but of course, no mission can go without issues.
Tsiolkovsky 1′s atmospheric probe failed to decouple from the satellite, leading it to have to cut Pluto from it’s lineup due to a lack of fuel for adjustments to compensate for the extra weight. The rest of Tsiolkovsky 2 went without a hitch, allowing the public to see the images of the Gas Giants & their moons up close for the first time.
Tsiolkovsky 3 was hijacked by terrorists (sponsored by the Western Alliance), and it’s fuel was used to crash itself into Titan, causing radioactive debris to rain over a large section of its surface, potentially contaminating or killing any lifeforms there. No data was returned during this time, except a little bit of data from it’s atmospheric probe, which was released. Tsiolkovsky 3 was just able to pick up it’s signal, allowing for some of the data to be salvaged.
The rest of the Tsiolkovsky probes went without a hitch, with 1, 3, and 4 providing excellent mapping of the Uranian and Neptunian systems, and 3 and 4 also making a fairly decent map of the Plutonian system. Despite the setbacks the program experienced, it was still hailed as one of the most important programs ever launched. All 3 surviving probes contained several “indestructible” (by 1977 standards) disks, containing the sum of all humankind’s knowledge, with the hope that someday intelligent beings from other stars could learn about our society.

Image ID begins here:
5 major outer Solar System bodies are lined up in a row, with Jupiter at the left and Pluto at the right. They are all angled to a slight degree, and make an arch. Everything has a slight 3D & grainy effect. Jupiter is first, and it has intricate bands from its poles to its equator. The poles being mostly brown and having a few spots, and the middle bands being varying shades of red, orange, and white. Jupiter’s Great Red Spot is also visible, sitting just below a large orange band, near the right limb of the planet. It also has a blue hue at its north and south poles.
Next, Saturn is a bit less intricate in its bands, but it has vibrant rings that make up for that fact. Saturn has varying shades of yellowish-orange on it, with very few patterns. The northern and southern poles, like Jupiter, have a blue hue to them. Saturn also has a few black shadow bands below its equator, which are caused by its rings. There are 2 major sets of rings, with a gap between the two of them. They are shades of brown, with some slight scuffing on parts of them.
Next, Uranus is a light blue planet with very little detail. There are some white clouds near the edge of the planet, which is because of temperature differences since Uranus orbits on its side. It also has a pair of rings, but they are much fainter, and orbit around the terminator of the planet.
On to Neptune, it has much more detail than Uranus, and is a deeper shade of blue than Uranus. It has about as much detail as Saturn, with very little variation in the bands, which are mostly shades of blue. It has two Great Dark Spots, one of which is much smaller than the main one, which is again on the right limb near the edge of the planet. It has no visible rings.
Last but not least, Pluto sits at the very edge of the screen. It has a much more detailed surface than the Gas Giants, because it is composed of rock and ice. It is also much smaller. It has varying shades of brown on its surface, with features such as Tombaugh Regio visible, which is a white-ish shaped heart region. Other features are visible, such as craters and canyons. On the terminator, there are some slightly visible outlines of craters and canyons as well.
In the forefront, there is a large probe with a gold hexagonal body, a white antenna, and brown bottom. It is angled the same way as the planets. The brown bottom is the atmospheric probe, which is connected to the main satellite with a few grey connector pieces and a few small orange dots. The main satellite body has a grey body which connects down into the atmospheric probe, while the rest of it is a gold foil. On the top left is a magnetometer, which is a long grey metal rod with a grey metal disk on top. On the bottom right is an RTG, which provides the probe with energy. Its a grey rectangle with dark grey rectangular fins jutting out from it, with a flat top. It has a round bottom, connecting itself to the main probe. On the front of the probe is a flag bolted into it, which is red with a gold stripe on the left of it. In the middle is a stylized hammer and sickle, with a star just above it. Down and to the right of that are some instruments. There is a circle with a grey rim and a line going down the middle of it, two mini cameras above it, and a metal strip with another mini camera and other instruments below it. On top is the antenna, which is mainly just white with a few grey pieces supporting it from the main body of the probe. On the very top of the antenna another support piece can just barely be seen.
Below everything a red bar with a white top, with gold text on it reading “Tsiolkovsky 1977-2002″. Next to that is a blue logo with a white rim around it, with a galaxy and red text over it, reading “Galaktika”.
Image ID ends here.

Description

Hi again!
This one has also been a long time coming, I started work on this painting almost 4 months ago! I got sidetracked with making mission patches for my friend’s YT series , doing a gift for a friend, getting sick (and still being sick!), and my laptop screen breaking. Needless to say, I am happy to be back to doing art after so long! Again, my pace of art will be dramatically lower due to my lack of energy these days. Sorry again about all that!
Patreon /Youtube /Tumblr /Redbubble /Deviantart /Ko-fi
Below the bar is a bit of backstory & an image ID.

Backstory:
In 1977, the Global Union of Soviet States/Глобальный Союз Советских Государств (GUSS/GSSG) launched one of it’s most ambitious programs yet; the Tsiolkovsky Program, under the Galaktika Program. Consisting of 4 probes, they were launched 3 weeks apart each during the summer of 1977. They took advantage of the alignment of Gas Giants in order to perform a series of flybys, helping to chart the once unknown depths of the Solar System. They carried very few instruments; a few cameras (including a “citizen science” camera that allowed for the public to vote on targets of interest), a magnetometer, a cosmic ray scanner, and an ultraviolet spectrometer. This was mainly to cut costs so they could afford to include an atmospheric probe on each satellite, allowing for an almost complete understanding of the atmospheres of the outer planets.
Launching 4 successive probes in a row with a highly technical flight path helped the GSSG retain it’s image as a technological powerhouse, but of course, no mission can go without issues.
Tsiolkovsky 1′s atmospheric probe failed to decouple from the satellite, leading it to have to cut Pluto from it’s lineup due to a lack of fuel for adjustments to compensate for the extra weight. The rest of Tsiolkovsky 2 went without a hitch, allowing the public to see the images of the Gas Giants & their moons up close for the first time.
Tsiolkovsky 3 was hijacked by terrorists (sponsored by the Western Alliance), and it’s fuel was used to crash itself into Titan, causing radioactive debris to rain over a large section of its surface, potentially contaminating or killing any lifeforms there. No data was returned during this time, except a little bit of data from it’s atmospheric probe, which was released. Tsiolkovsky 3 was just able to pick up it’s signal, allowing for some of the data to be salvaged.
The rest of the Tsiolkovsky probes went without a hitch, with 1, 3, and 4 providing excellent mapping of the Uranian and Neptunian systems, and 3 and 4 also making a fairly decent map of the Plutonian system. Despite the setbacks the program experienced, it was still hailed as one of the most important programs ever launched. All 3 surviving probes contained several “indestructible” (by 1977 standards) disks, containing the sum of all humankind’s knowledge, with the hope that someday intelligent beings from other stars could learn about our society.

Image ID begins here:
5 major outer Solar System bodies are lined up in a row, with Jupiter at the left and Pluto at the right. They are all angled to a slight degree, and make an arch. Everything has a slight 3D & grainy effect. Jupiter is first, and it has intricate bands from its poles to its equator. The poles being mostly brown and having a few spots, and the middle bands being varying shades of red, orange, and white. Jupiter’s Great Red Spot is also visible, sitting just below a large orange band, near the right limb of the planet. It also has a blue hue at its north and south poles.
Next, Saturn is a bit less intricate in its bands, but it has vibrant rings that make up for that fact. Saturn has varying shades of yellowish-orange on it, with very few patterns. The northern and southern poles, like Jupiter, have a blue hue to them. Saturn also has a few black shadow bands below its equator, which are caused by its rings. There are 2 major sets of rings, with a gap between the two of them. They are shades of brown, with some slight scuffing on parts of them.
Next, Uranus is a light blue planet with very little detail. There are some white clouds near the edge of the planet, which is because of temperature differences since Uranus orbits on its side. It also has a pair of rings, but they are much fainter, and orbit around the terminator of the planet.
On to Neptune, it has much more detail than Uranus, and is a deeper shade of blue than Uranus. It has about as much detail as Saturn, with very little variation in the bands, which are mostly shades of blue. It has two Great Dark Spots, one of which is much smaller than the main one, which is again on the right limb near the edge of the planet. It has no visible rings.
Last but not least, Pluto sits at the very edge of the screen. It has a much more detailed surface than the Gas Giants, because it is composed of rock and ice. It is also much smaller. It has varying shades of brown on its surface, with features such as Tombaugh Regio visible, which is a white-ish shaped heart region. Other features are visible, such as craters and canyons. On the terminator, there are some slightly visible outlines of craters and canyons as well.
In the forefront, there is a large probe with a gold hexagonal body, a white antenna, and brown bottom. It is angled the same way as the planets. The brown bottom is the atmospheric probe, which is connected to the main satellite with a few grey connector pieces and a few small orange dots. The main satellite body has a grey body which connects down into the atmospheric probe, while the rest of it is a gold foil. On the top left is a magnetometer, which is a long grey metal rod with a grey metal disk on top. On the bottom right is an RTG, which provides the probe with energy. Its a grey rectangle with dark grey rectangular fins jutting out from it, with a flat top. It has a round bottom, connecting itself to the main probe. On the front of the probe is a flag bolted into it, which is red with a gold stripe on the left of it. In the middle is a stylized hammer and sickle, with a star just above it. Down and to the right of that are some instruments. There is a circle with a grey rim and a line going down the middle of it, two mini cameras above it, and a metal strip with another mini camera and other instruments below it. On top is the antenna, which is mainly just white with a few grey pieces supporting it from the main body of the probe. On the very top of the antenna another support piece can just barely be seen.
Below everything a red bar with a white top, with gold text on it reading “Tsiolkovsky 1977-2002″. Next to that is a blue logo with a white rim around it, with a galaxy and red text over it, reading “Galaktika”.
Image ID ends here.