Well.. Following PhilCo126's statement in
http://www.unmannedspaceflight.com/index.p...indpost&p=24859

Here are some pics of the VL1 model I built spare time in 1982 when I was working in Conway's Snyder Viking team as a student in JPL.
It was built from scratch using balsa wood, electrical wires, plaster, cork... I bought then at Pasadena. Its aim was for the simulation of its shadows to assess the possibility or not to see VL1 from orbit using MGCO's 1.5m resolution camera (MGCO was later renamed Mars Observer). The results were that it could be seen only a few hours per day (before 8:30 am and after 3:30 pm) when its shadow was at its maximum extension, BUT not at sunrise or sunset when contrast is too low...
We had no real lander to work with : the Viking Test Lander (somewhat scrapped internally) was in the Air & Space Museum in Washington DC and some spare parts were remaining at Martin Marietta Aerospace plant (now Lockheed Martin).

Those spare parts needed to be assembled together (save for the RTG covers). In fact, Jim Tillman did a great job collecting them and building this lander back for exhibit at Washington University in Seattle (link http://www-k12.atmos.washington.edu/k12/re..._overview.html)

Despite that (i) its color should be Navy grey, (ii) it lacks the thermal protection under the propellant reservoirs and (iii) some details are missing on the footpads,
the rest of this model show a Viking Lander very close to reality in term of protruding parts (made for the shadows experiment) and nearby rocks : we had great fun working with it !

Enjoy !

Looking to this nice model, I have two questions about Viking: what is exactly the piece of hardware on the terrain (visible in many V1 photos) and why I never saw 3D images from these landers, having two well separated camersa on one side of it?
Thanks.

Where would someone buy Model Space Probes?

I have always seen very cool looking probes behind JPL scientists during interviews but have never seen them for sale!?

There's lots of Viking lander stereo; see, for example, the anaglyph at http://www.msss.com/http/ps/vl.html

However, as the page notes, "Viking Lander stereo is notoriously difficult to fuse because of the long camera baseline".

The "piece of hardware" seen on the right hand side of VL1 and in front of VL2 is the soil sampler shroud that was jettisoned a few sols after landing.

Thanks to all!

For what it's worth, Realspacemodels sells an excellent kit of Viking, but it's not for the amateur modeler:

http://realspacemodels.com/html/vikingpg.html

...and here is a picture made this WE to show you a VL1's sol 6 sunrise shadows simulated on the model with a real picture taken on Mars !
Enjoy !

The US flag looks purple?! Is it because of the low light levels?

The US flag looks purple because the camera's color filter bands were *way* off those of the human eye. The eye's green and blue bands overlap a fair bit, and green and red overlap massively in the yellow-orange region of the spectrum.

Viking lander's camera had to survive heat-sterilization above 100C for some 36 hours (somebody check my figures if they're way off) and the color filters were interference filters, not color glass filters. The blue and green filters didn't overlap hardly at all, and the red filter had a big gap between green and red where the camera had almost no response. It really was a far-red filter, peaking at wavelengths where the eye barely responds to far-red light.

The flag and the blue test-chip in the color calibration chart both increased in reflectivity at far red wavelengths and the purple color results from the red channel picking up this where the eye essentially did not.

Raw colors from Viking lander camera pics where the white and gray test spots on the color chart are color balanced to be neutral are "correct" but not what the eye would see. The colors are too red instead of "ochre" and are too saturated.. too strong.

Getting "TRUE" color from the images is possible, but requires estimating the real spectrum entering the camera based on camera and sunlight modeling, and re-mapping that spectrum to the human eye's color response.

Thanks for that explanation.

Thanks, Ed : I confirm this is it with the filters !
The basic rule with VL pictures is that when the blue square on the color chart, the 1976 logo and the US flag look purple, you are close to good surface & sky colors. This was our very basic rule at JPL at the end of the mission during the old times when we had to process all the Monitor Mission pictures...

For non-model builders, go to eBay and browse for 'Takara' or 'Kaiyodo' and 'Museum of Science' - there are loads of fairly cheap and almost-assembled unmanned vehicles available, and a fair few manned chappies as well. Looking around my nest I see Voyager, Viking, Lunokhod, Ranger, Pioneer 10, Mars-3... ...and all requiring only trivial assembly skills!

On the manned front there's even more - recent favourites have included a set of 1/720 shuttles: a full Energiya/Buran stack, the Buran test article (with jet engines) and Enterprise. At some point I'm sure there'll be a certain six-engined jet with a Buran shuttle on top, too!

Bob Shaw

Geesh, and you got red smudges all over it, plus there's a piece of metal off to the side.

Nice Viking Lander scale model indeed ... at which scale is it ?

Buying Scale models ?

Respectively for unmanned and manned spacecraft:

http://www.realspacemodels.com/

http://www.spacemodel.com/


Best regards,
Philip

The scale is 1m = 5cm on the model ==> 1/20

What is up with those prices!?

Over $1000 Bucks for a Voyager model!


Thats JUST Nuts.

Well - take the Realspacemodels Kit - and add 100 hours of build time onto it.....I can see why he could come up with that figure, I've had a few Realspacemodel kits and they are VERY hard work - but beautiful results

Doug

Imagine building a fleet of small, *working* Voyagers for $1000 each. What a bargain!

...and for USD 1000, it's not so "real" : look at the coolant pipes, the hi-gain antenna mast (which shoud be more vertical)...

If you want to see the Mother of All Modeling Projects, take a look at this guy's website - he's building a replica of Launch Complex 39. Talk about your time-consuming projects! And how does he get it out of his basement when he's done with it?

Never mind getting it out of the basement, what about dusting it?

Bob Shaw

What's dusting?

Nick Proach's models are very overpriced and he isn't too friendly.

I'll stick to modelling. I'll bet you could pay an experienced modeler to MAKE you the RSM Voyager for a couple hundred, at most.

(By the way I happen to be working on the RSM Voyager right now). But I'm not experienced enough to build them for a living :-D

Well, realspacemodels in Florida did a nice job making unmanned spacecraft models available ... I've managed to order the VIKING lander only from the Viking set for US $ 75.00 plus shipping ...
Talkin about the Voyager spacecraft, take a look at weblink below, I don't know if those are still available but it looks great:

http://www.spacecraftkits.com/museum.html

Philip

Quick look to the 1/24 VOYAGER scale model:
http://www.ninfinger.org/~sven/models/realspace/voyager.html

Does anybody have the small TAKARA scale models of Viking Lander or of Voyager spacecraft ?
How large are the antennas on that Voyager ?

I don't know if they are available assembled and in the acrylic case, but you can buy the kit and have fun making it yourself from our website if you're interested. They do look amazing for paper models. I've always wanted to build them but my husband has drawn the line at suspending spacecraft models from the ceiling in our house...

--Emily

I just got a few of the models from SCI (Voyager, Galileo, MGS and the free MPL with a couple of spare HGA's for a scratch built New Horizons )

I currently have a 1:1 cube sat hanging in my little office at home

Tonight - I think I might make the MPL

Doug

I believe that the very small Takara Voyager would look nice suspended in an upper ceiling corner of any room
Does anyone have that one ?

I have just about all the Takara models, which are very nice indeed. The Voyager is particularly good - I mounted one on a base painted to represent a 'typical' KBO, with a red surface, fresh ice features and so on. They are still available via eBay, but the price is creeping up - expect to pay $20 or so these days.

I'll post a photo in the next day or so.

I wonder if any of our Japanese members could ask the company which produces them whether they have any more in the pipeline?

Among those Japanese 'Candy Box' models already available are: Viking Lander, Sputnik, Pioneer at Jupiter, Mars-5, Ranger IX, Lunokhod and a bunch of manned vehicles of one sort another. All are high quality, and many are pretty well unique as even faintly mass market models.

Bob Shaw

Are there any models of probes that did *not* make it to their targets in one form or another, like Mariners 1, 3, and 8, Rangers 1 through 6, and all those poor unsung Soviet Venera and Mars probes?

Anybody can build and have a successful probe. Now how about the ones that died in the noble cause for scientific exploration?

According to Mat Irvine in Creating Space, Revell listed a Mariner II kit at one point (identical to Mariner I), but it never reached production. And there's the (in)famous JPL/Mattel 'Hot Wheels' Mars Polar Lander, Mars Climate Observer and Deep Space 2 Hot Wheels set...

See details of Mat's book at:

http://www.smallspace.demon.co.uk/Space_Models/spacemod.htm

Creating Space The Space Age Through Models by Mat Irvine
ISBN 1-896522-86-6 352 pages (173 colour) $30.95

Bob Shaw

Here's another nice weblink ( e.g. Mars Global Surveyor ):
http://www.up-ship.com/ptm/dm.htm

Here are the pictures of the Takara Voyager which I promised - it's about 7" from the base of the RTG to the tip of the magnetometer boom.

Bob Shaw

Thanks for sharing those Bob ... just bought that Voyager on eBay as it's great to explain how the craft looks like and flies into space with antenna pointed to Earth
Since this is te Viking lander topic, could You also add some Viking lander photos please?
I believe these things just snap together, no glue necessary?

The Takara StarTales models do, indeed, just snap together - but they're *not* toys as you'd normally think of them, and have none of that irritating Japanese tendency to add wheels, clockwork motors, missiles etc!

The Viking Lander is particularly attractive.

Here's a good overall description:

http://apollomaniacs.web.infoseek.co.jp/ap...startales2e.htm

Bob Shaw

Thanks for that reference, Bob.

It brought back memories: I built one of Ellwyn Angle's Revell models of "The Space Station" when I was a youngster, evidently back in 1959. That was my favorite model of all! I was reminiscing about those times and how there were so many wonderful space and aviation plastic models available. I suspect that the Space Station would command a dear price today, but I can always build my own from scratch if I had photos....

Time to Google...

--Bill

Well the space modellers book weblink has changed:
http://www.smallspace.demon.co.uk/Space_Mo...eSpaceModel.htm