Wet Orbital Workshop, 1968

[Paper Kosmonaut]

This is an actual real world What-if. It was an original proposal that never made it to existence.

In the years leading to the actual landing on the moon, NASA already researched some possibilities to expand and adapt certain parts of the Apollo project for other purposes. All of them were put together in a project named Apollo Applications Project, or AAP for short. (which means monkey in Dutch, but that is not relevant to this story.)

One of the most daring ideas was to try and use a SIVb stage (the 3rd Saturn V stage) with an Apollo spacecraft to make a manned Venusian flyby.
Another one was to build an orbital laboratory, a space station. Here too, an SIVb was proposed as the center point of development. Lots of ideas were distilled into just two: one in which the SIVb stage was prepared on Earth with all of the necessary equipment and compartments and launched on a Saturn V as just dead weight into low earth orbit, the other was one where the stage actually first was used to propel itself into a nice orbit after which it would be pumped dry and used after it was cleaned out inside: the wet orbital workshop.

In the end, NASA used a leftover SIVb to launch its first space station into orbit in 1973. It was called Skylab. It was visited by three crews of three astronauts in the early seventies and lots of research was done. But this Skylab was actually quite a toned down version of what NASA originally had in mind.
One big visual difference with Skylab was that the wet orbital workshop was an actual working SIVb stage, so, with engine and all. Skylab's SIVb stage had its engine removed.
The wet orbital workshop would also have had a real separate observatory, made of a LM (lunar lander) ascent stage with a telescope instead of an engine. It also would have had a very different configuration of solar panels: they would have been attached to the doors of the SLA, the four petal-like parts of the SIVb top behind which originally the lunar lander was stored. In hindsight, they might have not been able to provide the station with enough power but that was what was proposed. So, no windmill like helicopter rotor blades on top.
Up front, there would have been a docking station for visiting Apollo crews, just like with Skylab.

Now, there of course are some models in plastic available of the Saturn V. The good ones are massively expensive. The cheaper ones are not really worth the money, when you look at the heap of crap you get in return. The 1/96th kit by Revell is painfully, no, shamefully devoid of detail. The corrugated rings are too heavily corrugated and the flat pieces of plastic you have to roll into a cylinder are of a different shade of white and flimsy. The engine structures are dramatically incorrect and I could go on for hours. I build the kit and I had to spend double the money on aftermarket sets to at least make it look a little more like it should. Let's not talk about the Airfix one.

But. there is another modeling technique which is a little lesser known and that is (hence my nickname) paper. Yes, folks, paper. I started building paper models because of my frustrations with the lack of well-moulded plastic space models. I think one shouldn't have to pay double the money for a good looking kit. One other extra bonus point for paper modeling is that when you mess something up, you just reprint the page. And kitbashing is very easy.

There are loads of super detailed models online. In all scales possible. (you can also enlarge or reduce scales to your own preferences, another convenient thing about paper models.) I used a couple of freely available models to make this wet orbital workshop. There is a lot of choice in (real)space models online. Satellites, probes, rockets, space shuttles, mars rovers, you name it. This was one of the earlier models I made, I now have been making paper models for more than six years but I made this one in 2012.
I used the J2 engine from one kit, the SIVb stage from another, the Apollo spacecraft from yet another designer and put the whole shebang together to look like this:





The helium tanks are beads.





The inside latticeworks supporting the access tunnel to the Apollo and the observatory are made from brass rods.





and one to put it all in perspective, scalewise:

To ones interesting in paper modeling: I can provide you with some good online places to go to and find nice free models.

[rickshaw]

I am interested.  More than likely, I'll never indulge it but I am interested...

[Gondor]

That's one heck of a model 

Gondor

[zenrat]

Wow.

[PR19_Kit]

Jeepers, that's amazing! 

How do you ensure that all the parts print out at the same scale though?

[Paper Kosmonaut]

Thank you all for the kind words.

Jeepers, that's amazing! 

How do you ensure that all the parts print out at the same scale though?

Most of the models I used for this actually already were the same scale. But there is, just like in plastic modeling, a standard set of scales in which things are designed and built. To reduce or enlarge them there is a nifty scheme I have printed out and tacked to the wall of the hobby room. I have often reduced models from 1/144 to 1/400, for example. In some cases it is practical to use something like Photoshop to compare and resize stuff. But in general you will be amazed how exact most models are in terms of measurements and detail. Especially when you get the hang of it, you can go pretty far in realism.
Shameless self-promotion: my paper model gallery on my blog.


This is the MLP and crawler with a fragment of Space Shuttle Columbia I made in 1/400. What you see here is 10,5 cm (4,13 inch) across. the original model was 1/144. this model is free and available from Alfonso X. Moreno's website. He has all the shuttles and in all the flight configurations. All the flights. With even the right payload. (the payload is a separate model and isn't free but it is cheap.) Take a look at what he has to offer.

[PR19_Kit]

Thanks for explaining about the scales, I should have figured out that such a convention would have been developed.

I use PaintShoPro for re-scaling decals etc. and it took me a while to 'calibrate' how stuff came out on my printer. I ended up with an 'easily remembered' 7.85 pixels/mm on the screen, so long as I printed the whole sheet out at 180 mm width. 

The crawler is ASTONISHING, an takes some realising that it's a paper model. 

[Rheged]

Gosh!!   that is a magnificent piece of paper engineering!

[NARSES2]

There is a guy at the Milton Keynes model show every year who puts on a massive display of paper models and every year it is different ! I've spent many an hour admiring them and am sorely tempted by some of the pre-Dreadnought ironclads but have never had the courage to try.

That crawler looks incredible

[Paper Kosmonaut]

There is a guy at the Milton Keynes model show every year who puts on a massive display of paper models and every year it is different ! I've spent many an hour admiring them and am sorely tempted by some of the pre-Dreadnought ironclads but have never had the courage to try.

That crawler looks incredible

Thanks!

And as far as paper modeling goes: really, just give it a try. Try something easy first. Then try something harder. My first model was a simple rocket, the second a 1/24 jaguar Mk2 that was just a little (no, way) harder. But in the end, it really is nice to do. And when you make a mistake, just reprint the page. Try one of these: http://www.digitalnavy.com/downloads.html or here: http://modelsnmoore.com/mymodels.php for some ironclad ships.

[Gondor]

So something simple like this perhaps 



Seen at the Scottish Nationals in 2014

Gondor

[Army of One]

Great work.......

[NARSES2]

Thanks for the link 

[Captain Canada]

Great work ! Love the details on that one. A very interesting piece ! Thanks for the links as well, can`t wait to check them out !

[Paper Kosmonaut]

(-: You're all welcome. Ask if you want something else of your interest. Cars; planes, space related stuff. There's so much.