The Sky is No Limit

Something tells me I wouldn’t do well in outer space. Travelling makes me nauseous, I never did learn to do the moonwalk, and how am I supposed to resist taking off my spacesuit helmet so I can play with my wonderful hair?

So if you ever do go to space, it's probably for the best if you leave me on Earth. But while fettered to the same old planet, I can at least stargaze in awe at excellent builds like Futuristic Space Station!

This piece of interstellar ingenuity is the work of Polish builder, Milosz. “I love working on creative things,” Milosz tells me. “I'm always full of amazing ideas that I try to make into reality whenever I can!”

A catering student and aspiring DJ, Milosz was drawn to Minecraft as yet another outlet for his creativity. “I love the freedom of creation [in Minecraft]. I can use a big variety of building materials, which allows me to create whatever I imagine.”

“Also, its blocky appearance creates such a lovely, unique atmosphere.” Well said! We should put that on the back of the box!

Molosz claims that the “sky is the only limit” in Minecraft, but is it really?

Because this space station build seems to ignore all limitations, in both scope and detail. It looks futuristic and sci-fi, but also pleasingly plausible. If someone told me this build was based on an actual design for a real space station, I'd believe them! And not just because I'm an earthbound ignoramus who, as previously established, shouldn't be let anywhere near a spacecraft.

The space station uses understated colours, making it something of a monochromatic marvel (which is what I would have called this article, if a better Minecraft.net writer hadn't already used that).

Milosz achieved this stylish look by sticking to a consistent set of “black, grey and white blocks,” he tells me “such as quartz, polished andesite, bedrock, black glass, polished diorite, iron blocks and cyan terracotta.”

Keeping the ship to a strict set of blocks makes other uses of colour stand out more, like the red stripes across the satellite, or the cheeky comet that appears to be heading straight for the space station. Er, this thing does have force field shields, right?

But Milosz didn't just choose these blocks for their dark palette. He also considered how they would look as part of such a massive construction: “The majority of blocks used to create my build have simple textures,” he explains “which makes everything look good in large scale.” Keep that in mind if you want to try a large-scale build of your own!

“I've also added some colour and light using sea lanterns,” Milosz points out, a smart use of some of the more recent blocks we've added to the game with the Update Aquatic. Maybe Milosz should fill this space station with Pillagers after our next update? Hmmm, actually, that's probably astro-not a good idea.

Milosz says that the hardest part of the build was “connecting all the different elements” so they made sense as one coherent structure. At least he can rest assured that the toughest element of the build was also one of the most successful: I love how this feels like a logical construction, the kind of functioning facility you could imagine astronauts/pillagers-who-are-seriously-out-of-their-depth navigating through the cosmos.

So given that he knows how to design a great facility for such an endeavour, how does Milosz feel about going to outer space himself? Is it something he'd like to do someday? (Mojang’s lawyers have asked me to make it clear that we’re not offering to pay for this trip – spoilsports).

“Of course I would love to go to space,” says Milosz, unsurprisingly. “Although, only for a brief period of time. Something like a one-week space journey would be great!”

If any of the millions (billions?) of astronauts who check Minecraft.net every day are reading this, get on that!

Render made by Boxu