For Burning Man 2009, a group of about 60 artists, scientists and engineers is working on a large, stylized rocket ship called the Raygun Gothic Rocketship.
Intended to invoke the romantic notion of space travel before it became reality, the rocket is meant to look like a 1940s-era spacecraft.
The artists have been building it in Oakland, Calif., and it will be installed at Burning Man, in the Black Rock Desert of Nevada. Late in the event, there will be a "launch," and thousands of participants are expected to be on hand to watch what happens.
In this artists rendering, the 40-foot-tall rocket is seen as it will look, on the Black Rock Desert, alongside its 25-foot-tall gantry.
This small model is meant to convey what the rocket will look like when finished. It has a very stylized look to it, including thousands of rivets and a very retro aesthetic.
The lower section (on the right) and the middle section, are seen side by side, in the warehouse in Oakland, Calif., where the rocket is being built in advance of Burning Man 2009.
A steam punk time machine, or "dihemispheric chronaether agitator," built by Alan Rorie, a member of the Raygun Gothic Rocketship team. The time machine was on display nearby where the rocket is being built in an Oakland, Calif., warehouse.
For maximum realism, the rocket comes complete with an escape hatch with exploding bolts. The hatch isn't finished yet, but it will be installed in this space.
One of the charts that visitors to the rocket will be able to see. The charts will show what is going on at a systems level, a local level, and a quadrant level.
