Mars Lander

Description:

A Mars Lander, roughly based on the Mars Phoenix Lander, which is designed to remain in once place on mars and collect soil and atmospheric samples. It has a robotic arm for collecting soil samples, two radial solar panels, dual camera system on a rotating head, and a variety of sensors and science equipment.

This is the first model I have posted that is rigged and animated. I have animated the unpacking of the lander which happens after it lands. This includes the expanding of the solar panels and the extending of the camera head. These animations were particularly difficult for me and required animation techniques I had not used before.

I created this model and the textures myself. The texture for the solar panels was reused from the Sojourner Rover model I did previously. While this model is based on the Mars Phoenix Lander there are many aspects that were changed to make it simpler to model and animate, such as the way the solar panels open and the way the camera head extends. I also wanted this model to have a similar level of detail and comparable style to my last two mars models.

I designed this model with freestyle rendering in mind so freestyle edges have been setup, but it can also be used with freestyle turned off.

Feel free to use this model and modify it however you wish. If you use it, a shout out would be nice but is not necessary. I am a hobbyist modeler so I realize my models are not perfect, if you have any comments about how I could improve let me know.