CEV to be made commercially available

On 16 Oct 2005 22:07:53 -0700, "Matthew Ota"
wrote:

Don't jump the gun on this CEV model. That is what Revell did back in
the 1960s with their 1/72 scale CSM molds, which were forever locked
into the incorrect Apollo Block 1 configuration.

....No ****. And rather than correct the mold, they simply reused it
for every single 1/72nd scale kit that required a CSM stack. Hell,
their 1/48th scale version was also a Block I, which is why the
Monogram see-thru version sold far better even if the "kapton" on the
outside was the wrong color.

OM

--

"Try Andre Dead Duck Canadian Champagne! | http://www.io.com/~o_m
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Matthew Ota wrote:

Don't jump the gun on this CEV model. That is what Revell did back in
the 1960s with their 1/72 scale CSM molds, which were forever locked
into the incorrect Apollo Block 1 configuration.



This is not really a problem. The investment in tooling needed for a
resin kit such as this is many orders of magnitude lower than for a
high-pressure injection molded kit. And besides... it'll be *years*
before a final configuration is settled upon.

--
"The only thing that galls me about someone burning the American flag is how unoriginal it is. I mean if you're going to pull the Freedom-of-speech card, don't be a hack, come up with something interesting. Fashion Old Glory into a wisecracking puppet and blister the system with a scathing ventriloquism act, or better yet, drape the flag over your head and desecrate it with a large caliber bullet hole." Dennis Miller

OM wrote:

...No ****. And rather than correct the mold, they simply reused it
for every single 1/72nd scale kit that required a CSM stack.


1/96th scale IIRC, this was from the days of box scale, where everything
was scaled to fit in the same-sized box.
Airfix did a 1/72 scale LM, and a nifty little set of HO scale Apollo
astronauts in polyethylene.

Pat

What's lacking are companies that would be willing to do it as expensively as the use of a CEV would require.

Then increase the flight rate. No such thing as a manned spacecraft
that'll be "cheap" if only flown a few times a year.

Pat Flannery ) wrote:


: Invid Fan wrote:

: I picked one up when the first station segments were sent up. It's a
: bitch to put together, with unlabled parts and somewhat unclear
: directions. Or my model skills had just failed me
:
:

: I'd been building models for around 35 years before I built mine, and it
: kept me very busy, let me tell you.
: The detail on that main mechanical arm is really something, isn't it?
: http://www.imrcmodels.com/iss/images/iss46.jpg
: http://www.imrcmodels.com/iss/images/iss45.jpg
: (it's all articulated...and fragile)
: On the upside, it looks downright spectacular when finished.
: This particular upgrade from Realspace Models would add a very nice
: touch, but might be fragile:
: http://www.realspacemodels.com/html/iss_photoetch.html
: Wasn't that some of the oddest plastic you ever ran into? It's very high
: quality and tough, but it's not normal model kit plastic.
: I think it's what they make model trains out of. The whole kit gives the
: feeling of something designed for NASA publicity purposes. When I talked
: to the company over the phone, they mentioned grade schools assembling
: these as class projects to improve teamwork skills on the part of
: students (by the time this truly extraordinary woman was done talking,
: it sounded like the model would single-handedly eliminate poverty and
: crime in inner cities. "Buy This Kit....Save The World!")
: I get a sneaking suspicion that these kits were being sent to inner city
: schools free of charge as part of a NASA/aerospace industry publicity
: ploy. Let's hope the kids weren't driven to despair by the kit's complexity.

"Yes your honor, it was a model project back in grade school that made
quit school and use and sell drugs."

: Pat

On Mon, 17 Oct 2005 19:55:27 GMT, h (Rand
Simberg) wrote, in part:

There are many companies with rational reasons to have personnel flown
to the moon. What's lacking are companies that would be willing to do
it as expensively as the use of a CEV would require.

That's quite correct. It is absolutely true, every word of it.

However: just as Shenzou VI would not be out of the Earth's gravity if
it had a slightly higher orbit...

are you claiming that there are ways, absent the development of
far-future technologies such as a space elevator (or non-Newtonian
propulsion!), to send personnel to the moon at prices that would be
rational for even a *few* private companies to take advantage of?

Of course, looking at prices in my local department store... if it
weren't for the effects of the balance of payments deficit, perhaps the
U.S. could just buy Shenzou rockets from China!

Or, given NAFTA... Hecho en Mexico, anyone?

On the other hand, I think that it is possible to launch *small* rockets
quite inexpensively. On the Astronautix site, for example, the low cost
of the German V-2 is cited.

What with all the advances in microelectronics and medical science,
perhaps in a few decades people will be able to "upload" themselves into
a matchbox-sized mass of electronics. We could call it the Henry
Wadsworth Akeley method of space travel.

John Savard
http://home.ecn.ab.ca/~jsavard/index.html
http://www.quadibloc.com/index.html
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On Sun, 16 Oct 2005 12:07:57 GMT, in a place far, far away,
lid (John Savard) made the phosphor on
my monitor glow in such a way as to indicate that:

On Sun, 16 Oct 2005 04:26:11 GMT, Scott Lowther
wrote, in part:

Breaking news...

http://www.starshipmodeler.net/cgi-b...ic.php?t=31504

LOL!

Now, if only your subject line were literally true... and there were
private companies that had a rational reason to have personnel flown to
the Moon

There are many companies with rational reasons to have personnel flown
to the moon. What's lacking are companies that would be willing to do
it as expensively as the use of a CEV would require.

Pat Flannery wrote:
jonathan wrote:
Ever see this spectacular kit of the space station?
I've been tempted to order one.

http://www.imrcmodels.com/iss/issphoto01.htm



I've got one.
It comes in a fairly small (and very heavy) box.
I had no idea just how big the ISS was until I built that model- it
dwarfs my Mir, Skylab, and Salyut models in the same scale.
The model is made out of a tough plastic that doesn't seem to be
styrene, which means that if you are going to glue stuff together,
superglue is a better choice than model cement.

Could be Delrin or "engineering plastic", which show up in model
railroad kits for parts that would be too delicate in styrene.

Intermountain seems to have a decent reputation in model railroading,
fitting in to the "Lexus" price range compared to Athearn's "Toyota"
price range, but not up to the "Daimler" price range of some craftsmen
kits (I know, I shifted countries in that analogy).

Maybe the boss is a space freak, too, eh?

/dps

Eric Chomko wrote:

"Yes your honor, it was a model project back in grade school that made
quit school and use and sell drugs."



There's a South Park episode lurking in there somewhere.
(Cut to image of Kenny impaled on a solar array.) :-D

Pat

On Mon, 17 Oct 2005 18:01:13 -0500, Pat Flannery
wrote:

There's a South Park episode lurking in there somewhere.
(Cut to image of Kenny impaled on a solar array.) :-D

....We'd be better off if it were Chumpko. At least we know the
trolling ******* won't resurrect like Kenny does.

OM

--

"Try Andre Dead Duck Canadian Champagne! | http://www.io.com/~o_m
Rated the lamest of the cheapest deported | Sergeant-At-Arms
brands by the Condemned in Killfile Hell!" | Human O-Ring Society