LEONOV: Heatshield Release

After the incandescent fury of the aerobraking maneuver in the outer layers of Jupiter's atmosphere, Leonov begins its long arcing climb toward a rendezvous with the moon Io, and Discovery, in a decaying orbit around Io. The faithful heatshield has done its job, and is jettisoned.

One of the most fun images of the series, with a lot of displacement mapping and texture work on the ablated shield.

Modeled and rendered in Lightwave 8.5. Base Jupiter cloud texture from NASA/JPL.

Thanks for having a look!
-Tom