The International Space Station Thread

[dhanners]

Originally Posted by Retired_for_now

Is it dark or just shadows or contrast effects? Nasaspaceflight.com forum on SpaceX has some discussion started on this.
Yogi

I checked that out and it does seem to be white. What added to my confusion is that there is an artists rendering of the spacecraft from SpaceX's press kit that shows the trunk to be black or dark gray: Spaceflight Now | Falcon Launch Report | SpaceX Dragon spacecraft facts

Also, the in-flight photos seem to show the solar arrays as being longer and narrower (akin to ESA's ATV arrays) than many of the pre-flight drawings have depicted them.

[dhanners]

Now watching NASA TV. The trunk is obviously white, and the solar arrays obviously aren't long and narrow like the ATV's, as I had thought. It seems my earlier impressions were based on lighting, camera angles, etc.

It is easy to see how you could stick 10 Shuttlephiles in a room and get 10 different opinions on what color the black tiles were, and 20 different opinions on what the ET color was.

Still waiting to see what the rear end of the thing looks like, though....

[Retired_for_now]

Yah, Dragon has obvious evolved a bit. Solar panels are one narrow and three wide on each side of this one, covered by a fairing for launch (rather than recessed into the trunk), hinged on the "right" side of the area covered by the fairing, and mounted on a pivot.
Yogi (watchin' the NASA TV live feed ... about 40m out?)

[marcellino4]

hi folks. Here are few photos of Rassver model, which is in preparation to be published. Alfonso know if it will be complete.

[Paper Kosmonaut]

Aha! Finally! I like that a lot. It looks good from here. Lots of detail!
On the pre-launch pictures Rassvet had a couple of extra cargo parts on its back, an airlock module as I remember correctly, an elbow piece for one of the grappling arms and some radiator panels. Are those coming with the package? As far as I know, those things still were on Rassvet when STS-134 took place. (Please correct me if I am wrong!) At least those radiator panels were visible in some of the shots by Paolo Nespoli from the Soyuz, on which I based my model.

[Wad Cutter]

Outstanding models and model work Hans. I will pay a visit AXM one day to get the modesl of the two shuttles that were lost. I watch the NASA TV channel from time to time looking for updates. I wish they would point one camera out the window and just let it go on and on watch the Earth roll by and another camera somewhere in side just to view what is going on. I tire of watch videos of thing gone by. In my opinion, this might help keep the interest alive for NASA. Those people who travel above Earth don't get enough credit or those who put them there. I can't think of a better way to spend the tax dollar. waddy

[marcellino4]

PAPER KOSMONAUT: yes you are correct, but we must wait for Alfonso

[Gharbad]

Originally Posted by Wad Cutter

Outstanding models and model work Hans. I will pay a visit AXM one day to get the modesl of the two shuttles that were lost. I watch the NASA TV channel from time to time looking for updates. I wish they would point one camera out the window and just let it go on and on watch the Earth roll by and another camera somewhere in side just to view what is going on. I tire of watch videos of thing gone by. In my opinion, this might help keep the interest alive for NASA. Those people who travel above Earth don't get enough credit or those who put them there. I can't think of a better way to spend the tax dollar. waddy

Well there's this... we'll see what happens with it.
UrtheCast - The Earth Video Camera (pronounced "earthcast")

[Wad Cutter]

That just might be the best idea NASA has come up with. Very smart idea.

[woods170]

Originally Posted by Paper Kosmonaut

On the pre-launch pictures Rassvet had a couple of extra cargo parts on its back, an airlock module as I remember correctly, an elbow piece for one of the grappling arms

With regards tot that elbow piece: that's the spare elbow for ERA. We have the funny situation that a structural spare for the European Robot Arm has been on the ISS for some time now, but ERA itself is still awaiting launch with the Nauka module (MLM - now scheduled for launch no earlier than 2014).