1/144 Apollo Saturn C-8

[MartG]

I've been intrigued by an old von Braun design I came across a while ago. Although the drawing is labelled as 'Nova launcher' it appears to be practically identical to the proposed Saturn C-8 design.

The drawing is contained in a 1961 NASA report entitled "Large launch vehicle system for a manned lunar landing program" ( document ref. MPR-M-SAT-61-5 , a copy of which can be downloaded from the NASA NTRS server ). The drawing of the Nova vehicle can be found on page 50, and there is also a copy of the drawing at http://up-ship.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2009/10/nova1.gif .

This launcher was intended for the 'direct ascent' mode for a moon landing, with no messing about in Eaortn or lunar orbit, just a straight shot from earth to the moon, with the entire Apollo spacecraft ending up on the surface.

After a few months spent researching the design, and the direct ascent Apollo design to go on top of it, I set to work and ended up with my usual kit of resin parts.

( click on thumbnails for fullsize pics )




Which build up into a 870mm high, 1.5Kg monster







Now, on to the C-2 and C-3 

[RussC]

Nice builds MartG, I had not seen any model of the C8 before- looks a bit like the N-1 attempted by our space race adversary!

[PR19_Kit]

Jeepers, that first stage is GINORMOUS! What thrust did those huge engines develop?

[MartG]

Jeepers, that first stage is GINORMOUS! What thrust did those huge engines develop?

8 x F-1s, at 1.5 million lbs thrust each

[Hobbes]

Excellent!

Did you use the Airfix Saturn as a master? And how did you create the large bottom section?

[Mossie]

That's a beauty!  The Nova launchers are something I looked up recentley, very nice to see it done in plastic.

Jeepers, that first stage is GINORMOUS! What thrust did those huge engines develop?

Kit, the Saturn C-8 wasn't even the largest of the designs, there were some General Dynamics & Martin Marrietta projects that used 14 or 16 F-1s or other combinations to produce launchers lifting payloads in excess of 500 tonnes.

The Nova pages on Astronautix give good description, scroll down on the first link & you can get the details for each design.  An easy way to spend a few hours!
http://www.astronautix.com/fam/nova.htm
http://www.astronautix.com/lvs/nova.htm

[rickshaw]

How did they expect to overcome the vibration problems that doomed the Soviet N-1 booster with its multiple engines?

[MartG]

Excellent!

Did you use the Airfix Saturn as a master? And how did you create the large bottom section?

I used modified versions of the Airfix F-1 and J-2 engines as masters, fuel tank domes from various sources such as the revell 1/96 Saturn - all the rest of the masters were scratchbuilt from plasticard

[Hobbes]

How did they expect to overcome the vibration problems that doomed the Soviet N-1 booster with its multiple engines?

Testing. The problems with the N-1 were not unsolvable, it's just that the Russians had chosen a high-stakes testing method: the launch was the first full-system test. They tried to save money by not building a test stand big enough to accommodate the first stage. That backfired.

As SpaceX has shown, a stage with 9 engines can be made reliable. Other launchers cluster up to 8 boosters around the core.

[Atlantis]

Beautiful work, sir! I see you have an INT-20 in there as well.

[MartG]

Beautiful work, sir! I see you have an INT-20 in there as well.

Yes - there'll be a conversion kit for it advertised on ebay soon along with my other stuff