Mission Psyche: The Arrival
Samantha Manley
Major: Illustration
Genre/Medium: Digital
About the Work:
“Just as ancient cartographers filled the uncharted edges of their seafaring maps with drawings of sea monsters and dragons, modern designers of vehicles traveling to other planets confront a legion of hazards, both imagined and real” (How to Land on an Alien World, Lorenz). This one line inspired the idea behind my Psyche mission video game, a game that would combine fantasy cartographers with the science behind the Psyche mission. Aiming to combine STEM concepts with games to help educate a broader audience regarding NASA’s research. The game would have you play as a member of an astro-cartography team, whose recent mission is to map their journey to Psyche as well as the surface of the asteroid itself. Along the way, the player would learn about the mission through field studies as well as collectible research note pages.
My fourth project, “Mission Psyche: The Arrival,” is one final illustration to tie together all the pieces I have worked on throughout my time with Psyche Inspired. It details one of the characters I designed in my first project, along with the desk design/ props being included. Both my map design and the journal entry page can also be seen on the desk.
Not only did I want this fourth project to include my previous ones, but I also really wanted to push the theme and aesthetic I’ve carried along with said projects. That is, combining a more fantasy, cartographer design with space exploration. To do so, I combined both a wood and metal look throughout the structure of the spacecraft in the piece. This was definitely a challenge, but quite enjoyable once figured out.
Overall, my goal for this project series is to create a game concept that delivers information regarding the Psyche information through the lens of ancient cartographers. It would deal with themes of exploration and wonder, while still delivering STEM topics in a more easily consumable way.
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