Yogi's builds - to boldy glue, where ...

[Retired_for_now]

Thanks Peter - it gives me a focus and direction for the projects, keeps my shelves from filling up, and seems to be appreciated by the recipients and spectators.

Got a bit overexcited watching millenniumfalsehood work up his Borg cube and stephen.irl make really tiny models over on the alternate realities forum ...

Eric's Enterprise D

A Borg tactical cube skinned with Drex's graphics

And Q


Straightforward build other than allowing for quantum effects and the compactified string dimensions at this scale ...

Yogi (with a new appreciation for the braille-scale impressarios)

[willygoat]

I love your collection at the planetarium! Very nice. I working on getting something similar going at my museum here. I love the school bus rocket hanging up by the ISS :D

[Retired_for_now]

Thanks Brett. The bus idea I got from Jon Leslie at the Lower Hudson Valley Challenger Center. I build one to the same scale as the displayed models to give perspective - everyone knows how big a school bus is (bus is scaled from papertoys.com). Another thought, you can get your classes involved in making the models. The 4-foot ISS model has individual modules and truss sections with only 3 pieces for each. One part per student would get most of it done fast and then they could work on station assembly as well.

Just did some research - I think the micro Enterprise is 1:31,000 scale (but I could be wrong, lots of zeros converting 2108 feet to .8 inches).

Yogi

[Retired_for_now]

Finished out the Great Observatories models (from Hubble site or NASA). Hubble (optical), Sptizer (IR), and Chandra (X-ray) now joined by Compton (Gamma-ray). Compton came down in 2000 and has been replaced by SWIFT, but I though I ought to complete the set for the planetarium.




Added in the Mars Express from Europe/ESA to bulk up the Mars constellation - I still need a Mars Observer (assuming it doesn't glitch up again). Looking for anyone who's done a workup on the Phobos/Grunt mission to the Martian moon as well ???




Enlarged and cobbled together Ton's ESA ATV automated transfer vehicle for ISS resupply to add to the parking lot around the ISS display as well.



Yogi

[PEB]

I'm very fascinated by your satellite models! And I must say I'm impressed by the speed with which you build these little masterpieces!
I use www.heavens-above.com extensively, and I've shown pictures of some of your builds to my wife, so she could get an idea what the little shiny dots moving around up there could look like.

[Retired_for_now]

Thanks Peter - most of the NASA/ESA spacecraft models run very few pages and are simple boxes/prisms and cylinders. I usually spend as much time on the display info and pictures as I do on the spacecraft. I'll also spend a little time adding some detail for significant instruments (or propulsion - ion engines - on the DAWN mission to asteroids Ceres and Vesta that's in progress).

Yogi

[Retired_for_now]

NASA's model of the DAWN mission to asteroids Ceres and Vesta is a good example of just how simple their basic models are. It also shows off their graphics, which provide a good base and guide for adding important details. One of many download locations Get Involved

Basic information graphic and display. Solar arrays are stiffened and mounted with an embedded piece of safety wire.


Basic graphics of the ion engines are filled out with squat paper cylinders topped with a disk. This is the key innovation for this mission - no fuel (energy source and reaction mass in one) required - the satellite carries reaction mass and uses solar power for energy to expel the mass.


Details added for HGA (secondary reflector and low gain antenna); momentum wheels (fat, blue disks); low gain antenna (black whip); star trackers (black cones); cameras (long gold cylinders); and neutron/ion detector (white box). Details came from using the flat graphics printed on the model as a guide along with a little research at the NASA mission web site.



Yogi

[B-Manic]

Nice build Yogi - sometimes simple is elegant.

[Retired_for_now]

And then there's elegant ...







One cylinder, one disk, two shallow cones, a base band and four detail parts (augmented to add more 3-D detail). Building half-size to maintain the 1:48 scale of the previous probes added a tiny bit of challenge.

The Giotto rendezvous with Comet Halley (along with Vega 1 and 2 from the USSR as well as Sakigaki and Suisei from Japan) in 1986 was momentous. The lack of popular interest and excitement still puzzles me. Maybe a backlash to Halley's less-than-spectacular display.

Yogi

[Retired_for_now]

One more for the planetarium - Deep Space One. Its 1998-2001 mission was essentially a technology demonstration. Most significantly, it demonstrated long-term reliability with its ion engine, validated the engine's performance with multiple rendezvous with an asteroid and a comet, and proved its capability for autonomous navigation. Given an objective, the spacecraft calculated its trajectory, used its ion engine to achieve that trajectory, then located and homed in on its target using onboard sensors and computers.

Ton's Deep Space One design reduced to 1:48 scale





The spacecraft remains in a solar orbit with 10% of its reaction mass remaining and its radio turned on awaiting future orders ...

Yogi