Go Flight
Active Member
Hi all,
Been busy for a while. I was commissioned by an NJ Science Center to build a New Horizons (NH) probe. The only instructions I had was to make it as close to 24" as possible. Naturally I jumped at the project.
The first thing I had to do was to get large sized plans of NH. I took the .pdf blue prints from the New Horizons site, printed them out and took them to my local Staples. what I got back fit the bill perfectly --
The next item I had to deal with was how was I going to make the High Gain antenna. At this scale the antenna was supposed to be about 15 inches in diameter. I've done a few vac-form things, but nothing of this scale. For this I came here for help. Al (AKA IEDBOUNTYHUNTER) from South Texas Model and Design stepped up and offered to help. I gave him the info and in less than 10 days I had my HGA.
Afterward he asked and I gave the ok for him to post a "how-to" on how he did what he did. Look at it here --
http://www.therpf.com/showthread.php?t=241003
The start and end pics look like this --
Next was for me to start cutting foam. I initially had a problem with my foam cutter and went old school with a sharp knife. No Good. I was just hacking the foam up. After getting what I can best describe as a hot wire table saw, things went a bit smoother --
Before closing it up, I had to include a shaft way for the base to be and the circular instrument to the left is LORRI.
Next the bus was covered up and seams sealed --
Once again we can see the base shaft way, LORRI and the item in between is the Star Tracker. Next image shows the Radioisotope Thermoelectric Generator (RTG), and a few of the other experiments -- Low Gain Antenna, SWAP, Alice, Ralph, and Pepssi --
Now it was time to foil the craft and add the experiments. There was a few places where I had to compromise accuracy for durability. As I didn't know if this would be in a case or out for people to touch. Here's the final images --
Thanks for looking.
Been busy for a while. I was commissioned by an NJ Science Center to build a New Horizons (NH) probe. The only instructions I had was to make it as close to 24" as possible. Naturally I jumped at the project.
The first thing I had to do was to get large sized plans of NH. I took the .pdf blue prints from the New Horizons site, printed them out and took them to my local Staples. what I got back fit the bill perfectly --
The next item I had to deal with was how was I going to make the High Gain antenna. At this scale the antenna was supposed to be about 15 inches in diameter. I've done a few vac-form things, but nothing of this scale. For this I came here for help. Al (AKA IEDBOUNTYHUNTER) from South Texas Model and Design stepped up and offered to help. I gave him the info and in less than 10 days I had my HGA.
Afterward he asked and I gave the ok for him to post a "how-to" on how he did what he did. Look at it here --
http://www.therpf.com/showthread.php?t=241003
The start and end pics look like this --
Next was for me to start cutting foam. I initially had a problem with my foam cutter and went old school with a sharp knife. No Good. I was just hacking the foam up. After getting what I can best describe as a hot wire table saw, things went a bit smoother --
Before closing it up, I had to include a shaft way for the base to be and the circular instrument to the left is LORRI.
Next the bus was covered up and seams sealed --
Once again we can see the base shaft way, LORRI and the item in between is the Star Tracker. Next image shows the Radioisotope Thermoelectric Generator (RTG), and a few of the other experiments -- Low Gain Antenna, SWAP, Alice, Ralph, and Pepssi --
Now it was time to foil the craft and add the experiments. There was a few places where I had to compromise accuracy for durability. As I didn't know if this would be in a case or out for people to touch. Here's the final images --
Thanks for looking.
