Shipbucket

Awesome stuff sebu and TC!

USA-Gemini 8-12 Mission Capsules

March - November 1966
These missions and capsules represent my earliest real memories of the NASA space program. I remember being glued to the family's little B&W TV.

From: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Gemini

The major objectives were:[2]

1) To demonstrate endurance of humans and equipment to spaceflight for extended periods, at least eight days required for a Moon landing, to a maximum of two weeks.
2) To effect rendezvous and docking with another vehicle, and to maneuver the combined spacecraft using the propulsion system of the target vehicle.
3) To demonstrate Extra-Vehicular Activity (EVA), or space-"walks" outside the protection of the spacecraft, and to evaluate the astronauts' ability to perform tasks there.
4) To perfect techniques of atmospheric reentry and landing at a pre-selected location.
5) To provide the astronauts with zero-gravity, rendezvous, and docking experience required for Apollo.

Mission 8- Accomplished first docking with another space vehicle, an unmanned Agena Target Vehicle. While docked, a Gemini spacecraft thruster malfunction caused near-fatal tumbling of the craft, which, after undocking, Armstrong was able to overcome; the crew effected the first emergency landing of a manned U.S. space mission.

Mission 9- Rescheduled from May to rendezvous and dock with an Augmented Target Docking Adapter (ATDA) after the original Agena Target Vehicle failed to orbit. The ATDA shroud did not completely separate, making docking impossible. Three different types of rendezvous, two hours of EVA, and 44 orbits were completed.

Mission 10- First use of the Agena Target Vehicle's propulsion systems. The spacecraft also rendezvoused with the Agena Target Vehicle from Gemini VIII. Collins had 49 minutes of EVA standing in the hatch and 39 minutes of EVA to retrieve experiments from the Agena. 43 orbits completed.

Mission 11- Gemini record altitude with apogee of 739.2 nautical miles (1,369.0 km)[15] reached using the Agena Target Vehicle propulsion system after first orbit rendezvous and docking. Gordon made a 33-minute EVA and two-hour standup EVA. 44 orbits.

Mission 12- Final Gemini flight. Rendezvoused and docked manually with its target Agena and kept station with it during EVA. Aldrin set an EVA record of 5 hours and 30 minutes for one space walk and two stand-up exercises, and demonstrated solutions to previous EVA problems.

As a nod to my wife, the Gemini Capsule was designed by a Canadian, Jim Chamberlin, the chief aerodynamicist on the Avro Arrow fighter interceptor.
http://shipbucket.com/images.php?dir=Mi ... Canada.png

CraigH

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In active progress
More Ships with Sails
Early Torpedo Boats in SB and FD Scales
Some railroad stuff
More random stuff that strikes me!

Great work CraigH. I love the way you've managed to capture the detailing and texture of the surface on the capsule even at this relatively small scale.

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Hood's Worklist
English Electric Canberra FD
Interwar RN Capital Ships
Super-Darings
Never-Were British Aircraft

Thanks Hood!

That texturing was driving me completely nuts. If I get around too it I may try it again but with solid swatches of a couple different grays...the corrugation is actually a small fraction of a pixel wide. It also doesn't help that the capsules were black.

CraigH

_________________
In active progress
More Ships with Sails
Early Torpedo Boats in SB and FD Scales
Some railroad stuff
More random stuff that strikes me!

Wow! A fantastic drawing!
Are You planning perhaps to draw Mercury too? And maybe Apollo LM (Apollo CSM is already done).

I feel relatively confident in saying that Gemini could not be better captured at this challenging scale. Superlative.

That mission provided my favourite Moon program image, the Space Alligator

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“Close” only counts with horseshoes, hand grenades, and tactical nuclear weapons.
That which does not kill me has made a grave tactical error

Worklist

Source Materiel is always welcome.

Eswube,



USA, Project Mercury, Design DA

Why don't you have a go at The Alligator or the LM!!!

From: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Mercury

The Mercury Program ran from 1959 through 1963 with the bulk of the flights using various "boiler plate" capsule designs to test elements of the overall system, ground tracking, and boosters. Some of the flights used Design D, from a SB perspective we'd have a neutral gray heat shield and retro-rocket pack, a small round porthole rather than the rectangular one drawn, and a few other minor visual changes. I've not looked into internal equipment differences AND I couldn't find a reference as to what flights the two designs flew.

Manned Flights ran from May 1961-May 1963.

NASA ordered 20 production spacecraft, numbered 1 through 20. Five of the 20, Nos. 10, 12, 15, 17, and 19, were not flown. Spacecraft No. 3 and No. 4 were destroyed during unmanned test flights. Spacecraft No. 11 sank and was recovered from the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean after 38 years.

Source images used:
http://24.media.tumblr.com/62b7e93a9119 ... 4_1280.jpg
http://www.scottcarpenter.com/mercuryma ... apsule.pdf

Please don't request I do any black outlining on the escape tower. Tried it and it looks like total crap...destroying the "apparent scale" line-weights. I've also left the drawing (top) with the Design D coloration on the heat shield/retro-pack. The only reason I can see for the striping on it would be for tracking purposes from ground based telescopes, it would help make rotation or tumbling more visible.

CraigH

_________________
In active progress
More Ships with Sails
Early Torpedo Boats in SB and FD Scales
Some railroad stuff
More random stuff that strikes me!

That's simply fantastic! Thank You!
If You were unwilling to draw Mercury or LM, simple "no" would suffice.
I asked simply about Your plans and/or interests of "similar kind" so to speak.

Jeb wanted MOAR BOOSTARS!!!! He got MOAR BOOSTARS!!!!


This is the Never-Built Saturn IC utilizing Aerojet's production version of the AJ-260 Solid Rocket Boosters.

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95% of my drawings are destined for NS, 4.9% for fun, & .1% serious.
Worklist:
Space Shuttle
Atlas V
Delta II/III
Project Constellation
Soyuz series