Gaia space telescope from ESA

[Retired_for_now]

ESA just got Gaia, a space telescope that will create a 3-D map of a significant fraction of all the stars in our galaxy, launched and out to the Earth L2 point. I downloaded the ESA paper model ( ESA Science & Technology: Cut-out & Build ) a while ago and just got around to giving it a try. Very disappointing.

Just the sunshade is overly complex and has obvious fit/buildability issues. Overall proportions and shape of the model are also unrelated to the pictures showing the actual probe before launch. Internal optical bench seems close but is also overly complex.





So, anyone else tried this? Worth working up a better version?

Yogi

[Retired_for_now]

So, views but no comments. That's astronomy. Nobody cares until they start producing pretty pictures. Anyway ...

1:50 scale, very simple model to capture the basic dimensions is dropped into the downloads. I have included a flat, internal piece to show the optical bench. More detail will have to wait until I finish enlarging this.


Yogi

[thorst]

Yogi,

I didn't built the model but it seems to be rather old (the instructions say it was published in 1999), for a spacecraft which was launched only last year, I'm surprised that it is as similar to the flight model as it is. It probably made lots of design changes between the model's design date and the actual built of the spacecraft. But yes, it is disappointing not having a more up-to-date model of it at ESA... Be assured, I am doing what I can to have at least some paper models there which are related to the institute I'm working at (see the XMM-Newton model on the same page, it was my first official release, so don't be too critical please ;-) ).

BTW, most astronomers are very open about doing paper models for the new missions, in fact, I had a poster at a conference of LOFT (proposed X-Ray telescope, now rejected) about designing a paper model for it and got a lot of positive feedback. In the observatory I'm working at the ceiling is full of paper model satellites which are shown to school classes which come to visit. So if you drop the Gaia team an email, I'm sure they will at least try to get you some reference material (although they too can not do wonders as the real drawings are sometimes property of industrial companies). Just try it if you are interested.

Thorsten

[Retired_for_now]

Thorst,
Good points. I did find the (old) paper with a cartoon very similar to the Gaia model. The actual exterior is very simple to do - though more artistic skill than I have is needed to do it well ...
Interior optical bench is actually not too hard to rough out. Still working on something that's worth building to capture the detail.
Concur with your comments on linking up with the mission teams to make a paper model for outreach. I've had mixed success, though the LCROSS, Juno (with revisions and better instructions from Dave Doody), MESSENGER, JWST, and the Tin-Tin nano-probe models have been accepted for use by those teams.

Yogi

BTW - nice job on Newton. I have it on my list when I get around to updating the local planetarium's displays.

[Retired_for_now]

So it goes ...

Idea, draw, erase/redraw, try to build, redraw, build again ...

Gaia now looks like this. Still needs work on the lower launch attachments and comms for fidelity. Interior optical bench is best considered a starting point for you to modify based on intended model use.





Dropped into the downloads to replace the previous file - new file includes the original small 1:50 scale version and a 1:25 scale enlargement with the optical bench.

Yogi

In the downloads but I'm getting a error when I try and download the file to confirm it's good. Working on it ...

Still working on it ... (out, out foul data demons!)

[Retired_for_now]

Hmmmnnn? File appears to be uploaded with the right name, size, and forum file ID. Somebody please try a download and tell me what happens. Thanks.
Yogi (it might be just me ...)

[umtutsut]

Worked for me, Yogi-san. Six pages, right?

It's under Real Space/Unmanned but it's not showing up in the downloads sidebar yet, tho.

Les (The Voice of Authority -- VoiceofAuthority.net - The Voice Stylings of Les Dorr, Jr.)

[Jubotron2060]

Yogi I also had no problems with the download. Thanks for another great model!

[Retired_for_now]

OK, it's just me. Dang! Six pages is correct; 878k pdf file.
For some reason I'm seeing the file ending with _pdf rather than .pdf. Very weird. Virus check in progress.
Yogi

[Retired_for_now]

More fiddling with the file ... and fixed. Don't really know why, but I ain't touching it again! Enjoy.
Yogi