Saturn V... in Lego...

[swarfrat]

As cool as that rocket is, the XKCD comic is awesome. I will have to show this to my 5yo (although he already has a vocabular around 50 to 80 hundred words. (He just explained acceleration to me today, correctly.)

 

[Verne Bunsen]

This is a fun project. I've always been fascinated by the space programs. Just think, some day this technology will fascinate people that it even worked. Great thread, here.

I love that diagram that explains the different parts of the rocket. Particularly:

"This end should point toward the
ground if you want to go into space

If it starts pointing toward space
you are having a bad problem and
you will not go into space today"

That bit cracks me up, they do have a way with words, haha! Also:

“Cold air for burning (and breathing). This part had a very big problem once.”

 

[Verne Bunsen]

As cool as that rocket is, the XKCD comic is awesome. I will have to show this to my 5yo (although he already has a vocabular around 50 to 80 hundred words. (He just explained acceleration to me today, correctly.)

“Up Goer 5” was my introduction to XKCD. They sell a 12”x48” print of it that I think would be really cool. I suspect it would be difficult to get spousal agreement, however...

https://store.xkcd.com/products/up-goer-five-poster

 

[Zhaezzy]

I was in teh Area there back in 91. I was in cocoa Beach for a job interview I was eating PB&J in my hotel that they paid for. I was thinking of the things I could have been doing if I had a bit more folding money. But this is a very cool project.

 

[Verne Bunsen]

Bags 5 and 6 completed the First Stage engine. It's a really impressive piece of Lego engineering, some very clever structural elements and approaches to aesthetic details.

Baby for scale:

I stumbled across this next picture on the webz just a few minutes ago. The previous picture's compositional resemblance to it is purely coincidental, but I thought it was pretty cool all the same.

 

[wildbill]

OMG we all have the same mechanical gene don't we?  Guitars, fast Mopars, space rockets, earth-moving equipment, Tesla coils, grease under our nails, expensive toys and blowin' stuff up.  Ha, I love it! I was an Estes child myself and on the edge of my seat for the entire space program. That is one very cool Lego, pretty sure my Grandson needs that one too.  Thanks for sharing the build.

 

[stratamania]

That's a cool lego  :icon_thumright:

A couple of years back the grandson, was really into Lego and won some competitions for building stuff.  Now its computers and robotics, you blink an eye and they are 6 inches taller and speaking two octaves lower...

 

[swarfrat]

Not that I'm wishing time away... but K'nex and my 5yo - he loves them but lacks the patience for me to get much of anything built. So I'll be assembling a seige engine and he's stealing my counterweights to pretend they're DVD's for his movie theather.  I'm always torn between 'whatever... I'm playing with my kid. If he wants them to be something else, fine' and 'no, he needs to learn to play with others. you want to make your own, sure, but don't take mine.'

We won't be doing the Saturn V any time soon.

 

[Verne Bunsen]

Not that I'm wishing time away... but K'nex and my 5yo - he loves them but lacks the patience for me to get much of anything built. So I'll be assembling a seige engine and he's stealing my counterweights to pretend they're DVD's for his movie theather.  I'm always torn between 'whatever... I'm playing with my kid. If he wants them to be something else, fine' and 'no, he needs to learn to play with others. you want to make your own, sure, but don't take mine.'

We won't be doing the Saturn V any time soon.

I can relate to this so much! One day playing with dad won't seem very cool to him anymore, so I just try to roll with it. I don't always succeed, but I try. It's funny now because there are 9 years between him and his little brother and he's on the other side of it, trying to show him how to build with the Duplo blocks and little brother is more interested in putting the blocks in the nearest potted plant...

 

[Verne Bunsen]

Bags 7 and 8 today, starting on the Second Stage. I continue to be impressed by the Lego engineering that went into this thing. Really interesting and clever approaches to structural and aesthetic design.

 

[Cagey]

If you like Legos, you have to be sure to stop by the Mall of America the next time you find yourself in the Minneapolis/St. Paul area. They've got some pretty impressive builds on display there. Kinda where I'd expect to see what you're building displayed, although some of their stuff is incredibly huge. I shudder to think of what's in some of those money-wise.

 

[Logrinn]

I went to Legoland in Denmark as a kid. An awesome experience. I saw that it's celebrating 50 years this year. It opened back in 1968 and it can be found in several cities around the world today.

 

[BigSteve22]

I went to Legoland in Denmark as a kid. An awesome experience. I saw that it's celebrating 50 years this year. It opened back in 1968 and it can be found in several cities around the world today.

They're planning on building a "Logoland" about 5 miles from my house. A lot of negative feelings here regarding traffic and environmental impact. I'm undecided, might be good for the economy. Maybe I'll learn to say "Welcome to Legoland" in a dozen or so languages and apply for a retirement job!  :icon_jokercolor:

 

[Verne Bunsen]

They're planning on building a "Logoland" about 5 miles from my house. A lot of negative feelings here regarding traffic and environmental impact. I'm undecided, might be good for the economy. Maybe I'll learn to say "Welcome to Legoland" in a dozen or so languages and apply for a retirement job!  :icon_jokercolor:

I can relate. When we moved here we were on the outskirts, but the past few years have brought outlet malls, sprawling residential developments, and baffling new traffic patterns. It never stops. Before you know it Tucson will just merge right into Phoenix. I believe they call this "progress"... I re-read Edward Abbey's "The Monkey Wrench Gang" whenever I need a little catharsis  :icon_biggrin:

 

[rgand]

I re-read Edward Abbey's "The Monkey Wrench Gang" whenever I need a little catharsis  :icon_biggrin:

I remember that book. Good read.

 

[Verne Bunsen]

Sunday seemed like a good day to double down. Before lunch we did bags 9 and 10, which completed the Second Stage.

Picking up where we left off yesterday by continuing with the exterior.

After building and installing the majority of the exterior panels, we encountered our first complication. The only hiccup in the build, really, which ain't bad. In this case, the panel I am holding in the picture needs to engage the clip inside the fuselage, but the clip was installed 90 degrees off yesterday. No go....

Fortunately, we were able to deploy the manipulator arm and prise the offending fastener from it's place without any disassembly.

Rotated and re-installed. Looks better!

Another bit of clever design that I had to take a moment to appreciate. The hinged pieces are used to provide the taper from the large diameter of the First and Second Stages to the smaller diameter of the Third Stage.

Joining the Second Stage to the First.

Excellent!

As an aside, all of these pictures from this angle are starting to make me a bit self conscious about the spot on that door where the dog scratched the paint off...  :toothy12:

 

[Cagey]

I wanna fly it I wanna fly it I wanna fly it!!!

 

[Verne Bunsen]

I wanna fly it I wanna fly it I wanna fly it!!!

There is absolutely a test flight, I'm typing as fast as I can!  :laughing3:

 

[Verne Bunsen]

After re-charging with PB&J, we pressed on for the finish. Starting with the Third Stage engine.

The Lunar Excursion Module is located atop this section for the trip into Earth orbit and the beginning of the trip to the moon. It is not shown here because, well, we hadn't built it yet!

At this point it is getting harder and harder to get this thing to fit in my camera. I believe this is the first picture to feature the chandelier above the table  :laughing7:

 

[Verne Bunsen]

First things nearly last: the Service Module (grey section), Control Module (white cone) and the Launch Escape System (the tower atop the Command Module). In the event of a launch-gone-wrong ("...and you will not be going to space today...") the Launch Escape System would cary the Command Module safely away from the rocket. In theory. It was jettisoned from the vehicle following a successful launch.

These protective panels enclose the Lunar Excursion Module, which will ultimately carry our daring explorers to the moon's surface and bring them back up to the Command Module for the voyage home.

The astronauts cannot traverse the Service Module, which means they cannot access the LEM the way things are configured. This is the reason for the "Transposition, Docking and Extraction Maneuver", where the Command and Service Modules separate from the Third Stage, turn around, and then dock with the LEM. One of the major goals of the Gemini Missions was to evaluate the feasibility of this very maneuver.

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y6F5oHSqbv4[/youtube]

And with that one tiny occupied capsule placed atop what is still the most powerful engine ever constructed by man, we have constructed the Saturn V, the only vehicle that ever carried anyone to an extra-terestrial body. At least that they've told us about....

Proud 10-year old for scale: