You may remember the October 2009 NASA
mission that first released the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) onto a
moonbound trajectory, then deliberately crashed the Centaur stage into the
crater Cabeus on October 9 while the LCROSS shepherding satellite imaged the
impact to search for traces of water at the Moon's south pole. The media rather
sensationalized the mission, all too frequently tagging it with headlines such
as "NASA BOMBS THE MOON!"
Here's my 1/48 LCROSS-Centaur model. Starting with a card model designed by John
"Yogi" Jogerst, I added many scratchbuilt parts made from plastic rod
and strip, tape, stuff from the spares box and even Sculpy (!) to the basic
model.
Click on
images below to see larger images
Most of the LCROSS
satellite is covered with gold foil. The white panels are vinyl tape. Note
the conical structure at the top. Most illustrations show the LCROSS
without this part that mated to the LRO, but my study of pre-launch pix
suggests it was firmly bolted to the satellite.
For the business end of the
Centaur, I used a 1/144 J-2 engine from the Airfix Saturn V kit. It may be
somewhat undersized, but captures the look of the real deal, which is what I was
shooting for.
Many card model rockets and
spacecraft are available on the web. You can either build them OOB -- can a card
model have a "box?" -- or use them as a basis for additional detailing
as I do. One of the best sites for such models is the Lower Hudson Valley
Challenger Center: http://jleslie48.com/
Les Dorr, Jr
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