| |
It’s time to drive there and get them!
Chuck Grey is departing for the Red Planet, on a mission to bring back Biff and
Sandy. He’s going to make the long journey in the Friendship 2004, drop to
the surface in the lander, and bring them back.
Read on for a bit of an explanation,
go straight to the root
picture gallery, or check out the
Mars Lander Module
gallery or the Command &
Service Module gallery
Friendship 2004 has of a number of components. The
full ship is 68 bricks high when assembled. The bulk of the ship’s length is
the Command & Service Module (CSM). Four disposable fuel tanks attach to the
sides of the CSM, and the Mars Lander Module (MLM) attaches to the nose. The
lander has both descent and and ascent stages, much like the lunar module of the
Apollo missions.
Here is the full ship, as it appears when departing Earth
orbit.
Check
out the root gallery.
The ship is assembled in Earth orbit. The components
are sent up via various conventional launch vehicles. As such, the whole
assembly is never intended to withstand full Earth gravity. This saves
considerable structural mass.
Two full external fuel tanks are expended on
the outbound acceleration burn and are ejected before the deceleration burn to
reduce the mass. Friendship 2004 turns around and fires up the main engines
again for deceleration and Mars orbit capture. Once in orbit, Chuck climbs
through the nose hatch into the lander and departs for the surface.
Once the
lander makes it to the surface, Biff and Sandy climb aboard and the ascent stage
launches off of the descent stage. The descent stage is left behind on the
Martian surface. Note that the lander is extremely cramped- this is no
sightseeing tour! Unlike the Apollo moon missions, this mission doesn’t involve
any exploration. It is purely a retrieval mission, and nothing extra goes to
the surface and back.
Check
out the Mars Lander Module (MLM) gallery.
The ascent stage makes an orbital
rendezvous with the ship and the passengers transfer over. Then the ascent
stage is left on a decaying orbit, destined to crash into Mars.
Ready to head
home, Friendship 2004 performs final maneuvering and ejects the remaining two
external fuel tanks. It then begins the inbound acceleration burn. It is
pretty well stripped down to the basics at this point. The Service (lower)
section houses all support equipment that the crew doesn’t generally need to
access. The Command (upper) section is the living space. External details
include a ladder for spacewalks, a folding comm. dish, and a set of folding
solar panels. The entire upper deck is the airlock- there are pressure doors on
the roof and between decks 1 and 2.
Check out the Command &
Service Module (CSM) gallery.
I have a gallery of interior shots of the CSM,
but they are terrible. I will have to do some tricky disassembly work to get
better interior shots- I’ll do that later. For now, these will have to do.
Terrible interior shots
You might think the engines are rather small for such a ship, but remember
that on a journey of many months it is practical to do longer engine burns at
lower thrust. Smaller engines and lower thrust again mean less mass.
The
solar panels and radar aren’t as adjustable as I’d like. But I really don’t
feel like reengineering them. And the color scheme could have been a bit more
coordinated between the lander and main ship... ah, well. I made due with what
I could find.
|
|
Message has 3 Replies:
 | | Re: MOC: Friendship 2004: Manned ('Figged) Mission to Mars
|
| (...) Tony, This thing seriously rocks. Easily the best MOC i've seen in a while. I personally am a big fan of realistic scifi - so this really hits a special place for me. I can't wait for the better interior pics - or to be able to see this in (...) (20 years ago, 1-Aug-04, to lugnet.space, FTX)
| | | Re: MOC: Friendship 2004: Manned ('Figged) Mission to Mars
|
| Hi Tony, So far I think this is the second entry I see for the retieval contest. This one is much more realistic than the horse we saw before! I like the "upgrade Apollo" feel you put in this MOC. The modular design seems to be well thought. Great (...) (20 years ago, 2-Aug-04, to lugnet.space, FTX)
|
6 Messages in This Thread:
 
 
- Entire Thread on One Page:
- Nested:
All | Brief | Compact | Dots
Linear:
All | Brief | Compact
|
|
|
|
