Ralph McQuarrie, the artist who helped George Lucas bring Stars Wars to the big screen, has died aged 82.

The conceptual designer created the look of characters including Darth Vader, Chewbacca and R2-D2 and C-3PO.

He also worked on the original Battlestar Galactica TV series and Steven Spielberg films E.T. and Cocoon, for which he won an Oscar.

Who's fighting Vader there?

It's concept art for a battle between Luke and Vader in Episode 4 that was later dropped.

More of McQuarrie's art (with some commentary) here: The Star Wars portfolio

Oh my. Talk about angels dancing on the heads of pins.

Norwich Star Wars fan’s rescue mission to Tattooine
Mark Shields Sunday, June 10, 2012
11:05 PM

A Star Wars fan has returned safely to Bowthorpe from his intergalatic DIY SOS mission.

Mark Cox travelled to Luke Skywalker’s home planet of Tattooine – better known as Tunisia – to perform essential repairs to a set that has become a place of pilgrimage for die-hard fans of the films.

The project was the culmination of two years of hard work that began when Mark, 35, and his wife Sarah, 34, married outside the Lars Homestead in 2010.

Upon seeing the poor condition of the building, the pair set up set a Facebook group and started collecting donations to repair it.

Within a year, 425 donors gave amounts ranging from $1 to $600 apiece to build a $11,700 fighting fund.

“It was the hardest thing I’ve ever done in my life,” said Mark, whose day job is working for Aviva.

“But it was so humbling that people had trusted us with the money to do the work, and that they so wanted to help us.”

The six-strong group’s visit was postponed because of the Arab Spring uprising last year, but they were undeterred on their mission to restore the set which featured in the original 1970s films.

They spent four days working with local Tunisian labourers in 50C heat on the salt flats to finish the project.

Mark said: “It’s just captivating – there’s nothing there.

“It really feels like you are actually there in the film, and when you watch the sun set it is amazing.

“Now that we’ve done the work, we hope people will be able to go there and have those memories again.

“It’s been my moment of fame, and I’ve had so many messages of thanks since I got back.”

The group plan to write a book about their rescue mission, which was also filmed for a DVD, both of which will be sold to raise funds for future repairs.

The Japanese Ministry of Defense has created the world's first spherical flying machine. The drone can hover like a helicopter and take off and land vertically while maintaining an ability to propel itself forward with wings flying at speeds up to 40 mph. There are three gyro-sensors embedded into the drone to maintain altitude and autopilot even if it's flight path is disrupted. And probably most frightening, it can hit the ground and roll in any direction, then immediately pop back up into mid-air.