MSL Diorama [2]

While the weather is good, one should take advantage of it, I think. In doing so, the building of this diorama has suffered some negligence. But so be it.
What do we have then?
Well, the box that makes up the body of the rover Curiosity is ready. Still needs dome greeblies, though. I do a lot of scratchbuilding, it all is quite small so some parts are hard to make from the printed version. I added an axle to the rover to support the wheel arms a little better. Today, I did one of the wheels, more as an experiment to see if it was feasible. It was. It kind of looks like the real wheels now. I like it. Five more to go. But I am afraid that won't be today.

Curiosity taking shape

Monday morning around 7 o'clock CET, Curiosity will land on Mars. Live on NASA! So if you are able to, watch it! Might be some spectacular stuff, because there will be live images from the rover's camera!
More building pictures after the break.

The start of the build. Box and two small ramps on the back.

I added some greeblies, silver paper patches and an axle.

The sides where the wheels are attached were reinforced with paper and aforementioned axle.

This is the radiator unit surrounding the Radio-isotope Thermo-electric Generator, RTG, which in fact simply put is a nuclear reactor, providing the rover of energy for a long time. The tiny brass wires over the surface are coolant tubes.

Wheel.

Hub.

Small.

Good looking. Now five more.

But first the landing itself. To get a good idea how this landing goes, you could try and watch the NASA video "seven minutes of terror", a suggestive title for a small film about the nerve wrecking descent of the rover in Mars' atmosphere.


More building after the (hopefully successful) landing!