It’s been over a year that India’s Mangalyaan has been orbiting Mars. A remarkable achievement considering ISRO’s budget, the 15 months from development to deployment, and successfully achieving a Mars mission on the first try all of which earned it the US-based
National Space Society's 2015
Space Pioneer Award.
Meanwhile, I could have not find a paper model of Mangalyaan and decided to design one. My model is in 1:87 scale but the parts are designed so even the smallest could be scaled up to the more common 1:20 and 1:24 scale for satellites and space probes. However, glue tabs will be needed added for the smaller parts like the scientific instruments and the reaction wheels will need to be several layers thicker instead of just one layer thick in 1:87 scale. There 2 templates for the reaction wheel mounts, the one with more surfaces is for larger scales while the one with fewer surfaces is for 1:87 scale because I could not fold anything as narrow as 0.25 mm.
The actual space probe is covered in multi-layer thermal insulation and the instruments are just bumps on the under the blanket if you know where to look. Also makes it hard to get measurement from the photos that I found on the internet. In order to show the scientific instruments, the model was designed with an insulating blanket that is more form fitting than it actually was.
I like to explain and show to my wife and granddaughter that Mangalyaan has to point it parabolic dish antenna toward Earth and at the same time have its solar panels face the sun. With that in mind, the model was designed with solar panels that can turn. We start construction with the thrust cylinder assembly because this part was designed to provide a second point of contact for the solar panel axle in order to keep the solar panels from sagging.
Tomorrow we continued with the top assembly so we can reinforce the upper – pitch deck and keep it from bending.