Spaceship design of the 50ties

[MRC]

Originally Posted by zubie

I've picked up the Glencoe re-release of the large booster and the spacestation which are quite nice and affordable if you can find at your LHS. The Lindberg moon lander also approximates the Von Braun orbiter quite closely, but that is plastic. Paper, though, I know Delta 7 studios had a paper version of the Collier shuttle as part of the "Retro Rockets" package.
Spacecraft Paper Models - RETRO ROCKETS

For those available to tackle it, some nice references off Project Rho's page documenting a 50s space age poster.

Space Age Poster - Atomic Rockets

(actually the whole website is flushed full of neat projects )

I have the Lindberg US Moon ship (owned by Round2 nowadays) and the glencoe Mars Liner (ebay "grabs). Although between the Lindberg and Von Braun original design i rather like the later...Don't ask me why... Of course I have a bookmark on projet Rho's site... By the way the Colliers "Man will conquer space soon" serie can be donloaded at Collier's articles on the conquest of space (1952-1954) - Space Stuff and I managed to acquire the first book published after it (another ebay lucky strike).

[Diderick A. den Bakker]

Someone asked for a translation:

La maquina sobre mi escritorio es una "computadora" del latin "computare", no un "ordenador". El estado de mi escritorio afirma eso. (yo)

The machine on my desk is a 'computer, from Latin 'computate (to calculate). It is not an 'organiser' - as the state of my desk clearly shows.

Agreed!

[elliott]

Thanks Diderick I couldn't agree more!

[umtutsut]

You might check out Scott K's "Mars Lander Rev. 1" in the download section. It's a 1/700 version of the flying wing part of Von Braun's 1956 Mars spacecraft.

The designer also worked up all the tankage and struts to go with the flying wing but never released it, AFAIK. Would make a most excellent addition to this model.

Les (The Voice of Authority -- www.voiceofauthority.net)

[zubie]

Originally Posted by Diderick A. den Bakker

Someone asked for a translation:

La maquina sobre mi escritorio es una "computadora" del latin "computare", no un "ordenador". El estado de mi escritorio afirma eso. (yo)

The machine on my desk is a 'computer, from Latin 'computate (to calculate). It is not an 'organiser' - as the state of my desk clearly shows.

Agreed!

That's it!...sorry I didn't get back to it earlier. It comes from my participation in some in Spanish language usenet regarding the proper Spanish word for computer; some language purists prefer the one rooted in the French "Ordinatuer" coined in 1955 and call it an "Ordenador."

That aside, back to the thread...
I don't think the design is that complicated, depending on how spherical the spheres should be. The main problems I see are in the trusses: 1) would you want to make all the holes that are in there, 2)a bit flimsy in cardstock? and 3)Open trusses on outside, but main structure inside, sometimes tricky to design so that attachments match up right (although those of you that design WWI airplanes probably deal with that all the time)

Found outstanding images of model on same subject done by David Merriman in thread he participated in. Good detail of parts and engine (about halfway down)
http://www.secretprojects.co.uk/foru...?topic=5033.30
I still haven't read the whole thread from page 1, so there's probably more stuff to be found

Any good examples of models with a lot of open trusses already with design/build threads?

[MRC]

Originally Posted by zubie

That aside, back to the thread...
I don't think the design is that complicated, depending on how spherical the spheres should be. The main problems I see are in the trusses: 1) would you want to make all the holes that are in there, 2)a bit flimsy in cardstock? and 3)Open trusses on outside, but main structure inside, sometimes tricky to design so that attachments match up right (although those of you that design WWI airplanes probably deal with that all the time)

Found outstanding images of model on same subject done by David Merriman in thread he participated in. Good detail of parts and engine (about halfway down)
Wernher von Braun "Round-The-Moon ship"
I still haven't read the whole thread from page 1, so there's probably more stuff to be found

Any good examples of models with a lot of open trusses already with design/build threads?

Indeed, punching a lot of holes on such a truss is "lesser than optimal". Although, being a double T profile (not sure if is the right name) in a, say, larger scale like 1:48 with a 200gr paper it may do the job...And the larger the scale, the better the spheres. By the by, I saved the pictures from Secretprojects on my hard drive. Truly intresting reading.

3)Open trusses on outside, but main structure inside, sometimes tricky to design...
Not being a designer I am completely out in the blue about this particular problem...

[zubie]

Would it be acceptable to not poke holes in the trusses and just print them? Just a thought. Even though I already have a bunch of stuff on the back burner, I did take some time out to play with the design (I kinda did promise to work on a Type 7 shuttle...which I am)

I like the sphere problem, curvy enough for spheres, but still keeping it simple (part of the reason I've been fooling with the Type7 shuttle, no flat spaces anywhere)

Here's what I'm toying with on Blender: The first image is the basic model worked up from the plan view available on the net. The second represents the tank parts seam layout. One I plan as cone sections (planned seams are red), the second as combination cone and petal. The third sphere is just for internal tabs.

The Blender model is not a complete version of the ship since I tend to not do duplicate or mirror parts unless it's for experimenting with different seam or crease placements on the parts.

[zubie]

p.s. with regard to scale.

I believe the ship (based on what little I can dig up on this design) should be about 160 feet long (~49m). So at 1/48 that would be 3'4"...I thought a tad big. I was planning on printing this to 1/96 so it would be around 1'8"

I unfortunately don't have the book to check the dimensions (I scanned pages of it long ago, but I think they went with an old imac :( )

[MRC]

Oh boy! This thread gets more exciting for every day...Trusses without holes are fine, I wouldn't mind it. I can always try to make them double and stance them... and if it doesn't work, well that'll settle the matter. At least, I can't say I haven't tried it!
In a Von Braun sketch I've found on the www made on graph paper, the dimensions are much lesser - 81 ft, more or less, and judging the Bonestells painting on Colliers with the three chaps floating around, the two seems to match.

[zubie]

Actually I based my guess on that image. I counted 16 major divisions in the height, so I thought 1div/10 feet. On the other hand I had another look at the published image which I believe appeared in the book form of the Collier articles called "The Conquest of Space" which I scanned once but unfortunately the article is unavailable. (you can find the image at the atomic rocket poster page linked earlier)

In that image there is a small stylized human drawn next to it, so I decided to take a closer look at it. By checking the proportions of the person to the length of the ship, the ship is 15 times taller - of course how tall is the figure? If, figure is 6 feet, then it is 90 feet.

The lander version is stated at 160' and I found a good Von Braun sketch of the lander at Io9 and with the legs retracted it works out to...160'.

I'll keep looking into this. It does kind of define what size the airlock doors need to be.