As usual after the jump are more pictures of the finished model and diorama.
If you like it, please feel free to leave a comment!
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| Curiosity is on the surface! |
-PK
Showing posts with label MSL. Show all posts
Showing posts with label MSL. Show all posts
08 August 2012
MSL diorama [4]
We're finished. Curiosity has also landed on the surface of this diorama. Today I made the arm, the things on the front and top deck (two drill bit holders up front and three skyhooks on the top deck - with these Curiosity was attached to the cables of the Sky Crane. Up front on the side there is the hinge of the camera boom. This boom, or pole if you will, lies flat on the top deck during transport and landing and has yet to be deployed. My 1/48 version can be straightened, too. And the camera head can turn. I used tightly rolled paper tubes and a pin for this construction. the camera head slides over this construction and is only glued to the paper.
As usual after the jump are more pictures of the finished model and diorama.
If you like it, please feel free to leave a comment!
-PK
As usual after the jump are more pictures of the finished model and diorama.
If you like it, please feel free to leave a comment!
-PK
04 August 2012
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.
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.
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.
29 July 2012
MSL diorama [1]
It's time for something longer again. I am going tomake a diorama of the landing of Curiosity, NASA / JPL's newest Mars rover. It will land in the first week of August if everything goes to plan.
The MSL (Mars Science Laboratory) is a much bigger endeavour than the previous two missions to Mars' surface were. Sojourner just was a rover the size of a medium-sized radio-controlled toy car, just 65 cm long. Its successors, the MER-twins Spirit and opportunity, were double sized, measuring one and a half meter in length. Curiosity again is twice as big, it has the size of a small car, being 3 meters long. So while the other rovers could be dropped on a parachute, covered in a coat of balloons to break their fall, they had to come up with something else for Curiosity, being so much heavier.
Enter Sky Crane. A robot which is not supposed to land but to break the fall of Curiosity and hover over the ground at a height of 7,5 meters. The rover is winched down on three cables and when the wheels touch the ground, the cables will be severed and the Sky Crane will fly away in a large arc and crash at a safe distance of the rover.
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| A new frame for a new diorama. |
The MSL (Mars Science Laboratory) is a much bigger endeavour than the previous two missions to Mars' surface were. Sojourner just was a rover the size of a medium-sized radio-controlled toy car, just 65 cm long. Its successors, the MER-twins Spirit and opportunity, were double sized, measuring one and a half meter in length. Curiosity again is twice as big, it has the size of a small car, being 3 meters long. So while the other rovers could be dropped on a parachute, covered in a coat of balloons to break their fall, they had to come up with something else for Curiosity, being so much heavier.
Enter Sky Crane. A robot which is not supposed to land but to break the fall of Curiosity and hover over the ground at a height of 7,5 meters. The rover is winched down on three cables and when the wheels touch the ground, the cables will be severed and the Sky Crane will fly away in a large arc and crash at a safe distance of the rover.
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