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Saturday, July 1, 2017

Slide of the Month July - Apollo and LEM


July 2017

Time to design: 2 hours
Time to print: 2 hours (your times may vary
Finishing: 2 hour
Original design: Tinkercad
Original designer: xmbrst
Try it yourself: Mini Apollo Mission


Another in my 3d printed space series, the Apollo mission captured the imagination of many including myself. Today I find it even more impressive considering the computing power of both combine craft was less than a Timex wrist watch today. The fact we could go to the moon, land and return safely is testament to the thousands of folks dedicated to the mission and the astronauts who's quick thinking saved many a mission. For a great set of articles on Apollo 11 mission, check out the NASA webpage



I found a few designs out there but I liked xmbrst design because of the modifications he did to reinforce the LEM legs and to make the rocket nozzles solid which could have been a problem when printing. The funny part is when these were printed, I did have some issue with the Apollo capsule breaking loose when printing and the rocket nozzle on the service module was a bit deformed. Well since I was gluing the parts together, it really didn't matter to me that the capsule's heat shield did not print since you would not be able to see it. As to the rocket nozzle, I used a UV activated glue (like these) as filler and then shaped it with sandpaper.  All the parts were glued together using super glue and I drilled a couple of holes in the back for a wire loop.  I used paint pens and home printed water slide decals to detail the slide. 

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