Ron Miller, Author at Gizmodo

The Great Soviet Space Exhibition of 1927

In 1927, the Soviet Association of Inventors decided to hold an exhibition dedicated to the possibility of space flight. In spite of some financial and bureaucratic difficulties — the government claimed that the subject of spaceflight was “still premature and problematical” and would only serve to “stir up the masses” — an extensive display of…

io9 Ron Miller Jun 11

Science fiction’s mascot is downright terrifying

Although Hugo Gernsback is best-known among fans for creating the first-ever magazine devoted to science fiction, he published a great many science fiction magazines, continuing well into the 1950s. However, while science fiction evolved and progressed around him, he remained firmly rooted in the style of the old Amazing Stories. Even his artists from decades…

Books & Comics Ron Miller Jun 1

The Rocketeer Who Became a 19th Century Obsession

It’s one of the most familiar images from nineteenth century science fiction: an eager, ferret-faced gentleman named Mr. Golightly riding a rocket like a steeplechaser. It appeared in countless different forms for decades, usually as part of a cartoon or poster caricaturing some political cause or another. The rocketeer even made an appearance in Disney’s…

io9 Ron Miller Jun 1

In 1901, you could pay 50 cents to ride an airship to the Moon

The passengers wait eagerly in the ornate lobby of the enormous spaceport. Soon, a signal indicates that their spaceship is ready for boarding. As they wait, special displays instruct them about how their spaceship functions and what to expect once they leave Earth’s atmosphere. Aboard the giant spacecraft — as luxuriously appointed as any yacht…

io9 Ron Miller May 31

Experience one (spectacular) day in orbit around Jupiter

Io keeps the same face toward Jupiter as it orbits the planet. For this reason, Jupiter appears to hang motionless in Io’s sky. Just as the Earth’s Moon does, Jupiter goes through phases as Io orbits it. Here’s a gallery showing the view from a location in the northern hemisphere during the course of a…

io9 Ron Miller May 14

The Strange Creatures that Cronenberg’s Total Recall Would Have Included

Last week, we brought you some exclusive concept art from David Cronenberg’s unmade version of Total Recall. And now artist Ron Miller has dug up another amazing trove of unused Cronenberg Recall art — including a photo of makeup tests for Kuato. https://gizmodo.com/never-before-seen-concept-art-from-david-cronenbergs-to-5907260 And this time around, there’s a look at the Ganzi Bulls, weird…

io9 Ron Miller May 11

Pentizel World-Building Sketches and Stuff

The rogue surgeon who operates on Pentizel to enhance her human qualities works out of an abandoned bus in a junk yard. Entrance to Biohabitat Gentech Gene Lab Gentech Gene Lab Gentech Reception Pentizel’s Hideaway Hideout Pentizel’s Lair Pentizel’s Lair Pentizel’s Lair Needle Gun Needle Gun Offices Omninet Building Omninet Building Omninet Console Omninet HQ…

io9 Ron Miller May 9

Did the Germans launch a crewed rocket into space in 1933?

On October 29, 1933, the London Sunday Referee published a report from Rugen, an island in the Baltic Sea, just off the coast of Germany. Someone named Otto Fischer had flown inside a 24-foot steel rocket, to an altitude of six miles. Were the Germans really testing out a rocket that could carry people, nearly…

io9 Ron Miller May 8

Never-Before-Seen Concept Art from David Cronenberg’s Total Recall!

You might have heard that body-horror mastermind David Cronenberg was originally in line to direct Total Recall, before he left the project and Paul Verhoeven took over. Now, for the first time ever, artist Ron Miller shares a ton of the concept art he created for Cronenberg’s version… including a very different-looking version of the…

io9 Ron Miller May 3

How Fast and How High? A chart from when rocketships first blasted into our hearts

The 1920s were the fledgling years of the real Golden Age of space travel, which lasted until the first few moon landings. Rockets were in all the news. Buck Rogers and Flash Gordon were every red-blooded kid’s heroes at the same time Robert Goddard was being ridiculed in snarky articles in the New York Times—but…

io9 Ron Miller Apr 14

A Treasure Trove of Cosplay from the Swinging 1970s [NSFW]

Science fiction and fantasy cosplay has changed a lot in the last 35 years. Back in the late 1970s, there weren’t very many rules, if any. And there certainly was nothing like a separate costuming fandom. There were also an awful lot of naked people (which eventually resulted in the only rule I ever remember…

io9 Ron Miller Mar 30

Here’s what the weather on Mars would really look like

One would think that with barely 100th the atmosphere Earth has Mars would have pretty lame weather…if any. But it doesn’t take much to whip up a good storm. Just look at the monster sand dunes that the winds on Mars manage to create. If they can do that, it’s maybe less surprising that Mars’…

io9 Ron Miller Mar 13

The 1935 plan to use rocket airplanes to deliver US mail

In 1935, a wealthy, enterprising stamp dealer, 32-year-old Frido W. Kessler, came up with what seemed like a brilliant idea. He would commission a mail-carrying rocket plane, fill it with a bag of mail bearing special stamps of his own design and creation. He could then sell these unique collectibles for a premium. The scheme…

io9 Ron Miller Mar 6

The Most Dangerous Places in the Solar System

There are some swell places to visit in the Solar System, but there are also a few places that it might be best to avoid. There are some grand vacation places — the rim of Mariner Valley on Mars comes to mind, or the ice fountains of Enceladus — but there are some places that…

io9 Ron Miller Feb 27

How the solar system’s strangest moon, Iapetus, lost its rings

One of the weirdest of the solar system’s moons is Iapetus. This is a medium-sized (1,471 km (914 miles) satellite of Saturn, orbiting about 3,561,300 km (2,213,000 miles) from the planet. Seen from the surface of Iapetus, Saturn looms about four times larger than a full Moon in Earth’s sky. Ever since its discovery by…

io9 Ron Miller Jan 31

Picture of the Day: January 16, 2012

SUPER SATURN | Artist Ron Miller creates an artist’s conception of the newly discovered “Super Saturn”, whose four known rings extend for tens of millions of kilometres from the central object, the young, sun-like star 1SWASP J140747.93-394542.6. Without knowing the mass of the central body, we can’t know what central object the ring orbits, but…

io9 Ron Miller Jan 16

The first science artist to draw accurate pictures of Mars and the Moon

Although largely unknown today, astronomer-artist Lucien Rudaux was the grandfather of all modern space art. During the height of his career in the 1920s and 30s, he produced spacescapes of such accuracy that they still hold up well even today. Originally a commercial illustrator, Rudaux was also a passionate amateur astronomer. In 1892, at the…

io9 Ron Miller Jan 16

What will happen when the Sun dies?

Everything comes to an end, and our sun is no exception. A star happily cooking along in its middle age, Sol has many millions of good years ahead of it — but its eventual doom is certain. Here’s what that will look like. Like just about anyone else, I like a good cosmic catastrophe…at least…

io9 Ron Miller Dec 27

10 Extraordinary Exoplanets Discovered in 2011: A Gallery

2011 will be remembered as the year that put exoplanets on everybody’s starmaps. Though we’d discovered planets beyond our solar system before, this year astronomers offered more evidence than ever that our universe is packed with exoplanets – some of which might be very like our own rocky, waterlogged world. Here are ten images I…

io9 Ron Miller Dec 15

Enjoy the apocalypse!

Is the world going to come to an end? Certainly! The real question is how it might happen. That’s what this gallery is all about. I had fun putting together a recent book called Is the End of the World Near? In it, I got to play a cross between Cecil B. de Mille, Michael…

io9 Ron Miller Nov 24

Ron Miller

The Great Soviet Space Exhibition of 1927

Science fiction’s mascot is downright terrifying

The Rocketeer Who Became a 19th Century Obsession

In 1901, you could pay 50 cents to ride an airship to the Moon

Experience one (spectacular) day in orbit around Jupiter

The Strange Creatures that Cronenberg’s Total Recall Would Have Included

Pentizel World-Building Sketches and Stuff

Did the Germans launch a crewed rocket into space in 1933?

Never-Before-Seen Concept Art from David Cronenberg’s Total Recall!

How Fast and How High? A chart from when rocketships first blasted into our hearts

A Treasure Trove of Cosplay from the Swinging 1970s [NSFW]

Here’s what the weather on Mars would really look like

The 1935 plan to use rocket airplanes to deliver US mail

The Most Dangerous Places in the Solar System

How the solar system’s strangest moon, Iapetus, lost its rings

Picture of the Day: January 16, 2012

The first science artist to draw accurate pictures of Mars and the Moon

What will happen when the Sun dies?

10 Extraordinary Exoplanets Discovered in 2011: A Gallery

Enjoy the apocalypse!

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