Space Shuttle Launch Pad 39A with Challenger STS-6 (1:144)

[spaceman]

Hello everybody,

 

and since I now know how big the Payload Canister and its Transporter are, I wanted to get an overview of the proportions right away,  

 

 

and have drawn the side view of the canister into the transporter's photo.  And this silhouette I used as a stand-up display for the Astrovan with the astronaut. And this combo doesn't look bad, I think. 

 

 

Of course, the KAMAG logos will later be replaced by the appropriate NASA Worm logos, naturally. 

[K2Pete]

I'll look forward to finding out if this Transporter drives all-l-l-l the way-y-y-y from the VAB with the Payload canister on its back ... or what the procedure is.

This is going to be a another fun aspect to this enormous build Manfred! ( Shake my head )  ;^ D

 

Thanx Manfred!

Pete   

[DaveS]

2 hours ago, K2Pete said:

I'll look forward to finding out if this Transporter drives all-l-l-l the way-y-y-y from the VAB with the Payload canister on its back ... or what the procedure is.

This is going to be a another fun aspect to this enormous build Manfred! ( Shake my head )  ;^ D

 

Thanx Manfred!

Pete   

It did, before the Canister Rotation Facility (CRF) was constructed in 1993. Before that the cranes in the VAB was used to rotate the canister to and from vertical. When the CRF went online in 1993, these operations happened there. The payload processing still occurred in the appropriate facilities in the KSC Industrial Area. The CRF now serves as the Orion MPCV Launch Abort System Facility (LASF) where the LAS is checked out and attached to Orion.

[spaceman]

7 hours ago, K2Pete said:

I'll look forward to finding out if this Transporter drives all-l-l-l the way-y-y-y from the VAB with the Payload canister on its back ... or what the procedure is.

This is going to be a another fun aspect to this enormous build Manfred! ( Shake my head )  ;^ D

 

Thanx Manfred!

Pete   

 

Thanks Pete for your enthusiastic feedback.  

 

The Payload Canister Transporter is a masterpiece of hi-tech transport technology and an extraordinary vehicle, that shouldn't be missing on my diorama, just a little like the Astrovan. 

 

Here you can have a look at an interesting article of NASAfacts dealing with this Canister Rotation Facility (CRF), also mentioned by my friend DaveS, thanks too Dave. 

 

Next I'll get started modeling the Payload Canister on trial, since I now know how large it is in 1:160. 

 

 

 

[freshnewstart]

Why did you choose to make the entire build in 1/160 ?

You probably mention that in earlier post, but this i missed 😑

Jesper

[spaceman]

Hello everybody,

 

now I've got started modeling a prototype of  the Payload Canister.  

 

With the the known main dimensions (LxWxH) I first tried to construct a simple Paper kit (1:160) of the canister on graph paper, for which you need not only the base area (124 mm x 34 mm), but also the exact shape of the front sides and the dimensions of the canister shell. 

 

The prerequisite for this was a suitable photo of the front side of the canister, but if possible without perspective distortion, for which I chose this photo of the STS-104, whereby it only depends on the canister. Although this modified transporter in 2001 looked slightly different than it was used during STS-6, the dimensions of the Payload Canisters remained unchanged throughout the shuttle program. 

 

Source: mediaarchive.ksc.nasa.gov

 

To determine the dimensions of the canister shell, I first reduced a section of this photo to 1:160 in order to be able to determine the length of the border outline. This shrinked the  canister's width from 18' to 34 mm. 

 

 

For doing this I then bent a thin copper wire (Ø 0,25 mm) around the contour of the front side and fixed it,

 

 

 

which resulted in a contour's length of 94 mm.

 

 

And with that I could now draw the paper kit of the canister. 

 

 

 

This can now be used to produce a prototype of the canister,

 

 

whereby the Payload Canister for the Diorama is to be scratched out of Styrene as well as the Transporter. 

Let's wait and see how this stunning transport vehicle will look like ... 

Edited January 22, 2022 by spaceman

[spaceman]

25 minutes ago, freshnewstart said:

Why did you choose to make the entire build in 1/160 ?

You probably mention that in earlier post, but this i missed 😑

Jesper

 

Hi Jesper,

 

I chose this scale as a compromise resulting from the scale mix of the old Revell Launch Tower Kit (4911),  that I described at the very beginning 10 years ago.
It's been a long time ... 

[freshnewstart]

6 hours ago, spaceman said:

It's been a long time ... 

Yep, a very long time 😊

Thanks for answer 

Jesper

[spaceman]

That's right Jesper, 

 

from the beginning it was clear to me that I had to try to be tougher than the rest, which gave me the strength and iron will to persevere to this day and never give up.  

 

Nothing is impossible, the way is the goal! 

[spaceman]

My friends,

 

we will never forget this day when yesterday 36 years ago the Challenger disaster happened on the newly built launch pad 39B and the STS-51L crew of seven became everlasting legends.

 

 
Back row: Ellison S. Onizuka, S. Christa McAuliffe, Gregory B. Jarvis, Judith A. Resnik
Front row: Michael J. Smith, Francis R. "Dick" Scobee, Ronald E. McNair
Source: wikipedia.org

 

That's why my STS-6 project should be a little tribute to these heroes of American spaceflight history. 

 

May they rest in peace. 

[freshnewstart]

Yes! They where true heroes Mr. Spaceman 😊 

R.I.P.

[crowe-t]

I remember that day like it was yesterday.  It was a tragic loss of these 7 great people.  They should always be remembered.

[spaceman]

Hello everybody,

 

then I want to continue, so as not to get completely out of practice.  

However, I've first turned to the Transporter, which still gave me a few puzzles that I still had to solve.  

 

In the beginning I've used this beautiful image of the transporter as a guide, 

 

Source: mediaarchive.ksc.nasa.gov

 

and I first started the experimental assembly, for which I glued both side fronts onto a Balsa board (2 mm), whereby I was so busy that I made a few mistakes,  which I've only gradually recognized.

 

Since the photo shows one of the 2000 transporters delivered by KAMAG, I've first replaced the front KAMAG Logo with the NASA Worm Logo and pasted over the back logo, which later turned out to be a mistake. That had to do with the fact that I was initially guided by James MacLaren's words that the first transporters had driver's cabs on both sides, which is why one had not need to distinguish between front and back side, but what is simply thought too short ... 

 

This also resulted in the error in my reasoning that I mirrored the other side, which was not necessary respectively wrong. 

 

 

So I created a copy of the first side and thus had two opposite sides and thus a driver's cabin on both front sides. So far so good.

 

 

With that I could now continue the construction, for which I've fixed the two side parts on a steel sheet with magnets over the floor plan of the transporter (124 mm x 44 mm) in order to then be able to glue the front and back side between them. 

 

 

To do this, I looked again at the few photos of the transporter from the STS-6 and from the STS-9, which followed six months later, and have compared them with James MacLaren's photos, which were from the same period.

 

And in doing so, I noticed some serious differences regarding the front and rear of the transporters of that time, which I had not known or overlooked before, but which are decisive for their construction.  And they are clearly related to the direction of travel of the transporter when transporting the Payload Canister to the launch pad, which ultimately should turn out to be the solution to the riddle. 

 

But since I've made good resolutions and don't want to work a night shift again, I'll stop at this point and continue tomorrow. 

Edited February 10, 2022 by spaceman

[spaceman]

Hello everybody,

 

as should have already become clear in my last post, I struggled with some inconsistencies and ambiguities for a while, the clarification of which was actually a rather tough nut to crack,  which, on the one hand, kept me busy longer than expected and was quite stressful, but on the other hand, was essential in order to can scratch the transporter used that time possibly close true to the original at STS-6. 

 

As already indicated, I've tried to get things straight concerning the driving direction of the Transporter when transporting the Payload canister to the Launch pad, during the canister was always standing upright (Vertical Transportation Mode).

 

Source: Space Shuttle News Reference (NTR Server, 1981)

 

In this upright position, the transporter leaves the preparation building (Vertical Processing Facility), as can be seen in this image of the STS-6. And now it gets interesting. 

 

Source: retrospaceimages.com (STS-6)

 

In this position with the flat side of the canister forward, however, the transporter does not drive to the launch pad but in the opposite direction, wherefore it's controlled from the driver's cab on the rear side,  what is a small but subtle difference that one have to take into account, what can be seen in the following image.

 

Here, in the mid-1980s, the transporter was almost at its destination on the way to the pad and is already on the slanted access road, with the hillslope being compensated by the lifting technology of the chassis, as one can clearly see.  

 

Because of the driving direction, this is for me as from now the front side of the transporter. 

 

Source: 16streets.com/MacLaren

 

Arrived on the pad, the transporter finally maneuvers in a left turn so far under the RSS until it comes up with the Payload Canister directly under the Payload Bay of the RSS and there to standstill. 

 

Consequently in this image by James MacLaren one has a look at the back side of the transporter with the rear driver's cab and at the F&GS Module and I&CS Module, located on this side, whose tasks have already been briefly described in Posted January 18 

 

Source: 16streets.com/MacLaren

 

In this position directly under the Payload Bay of the RSS, the transporter turns into a special Hoisting Mode, in which it gets on its knees, which means that the front side is tilted down and the back side tilted up, so that the canister can then be hoisted up by the RSS crane.

 

Source: capcomespace.net

 

On this photo of the STS-6 one can see the canister already hoisted in front of the RSS Payload Bay and the discharged transporter below, looking onto the rear of the Transporter with its back side. 

 

Source: retrospaceimages.com (STS-6)

 

In the zoom one nicely can see the arrangement of the I&CS and F&GS modules. 

 

Source: retrospaceimages.com (STS-6)

 

And now all I needed was a similarly good shot of the front side of the transporter, which one can see in this cropped photo from the STS-6. A typical feature on the front side are the red hoses, via which the air conditioning of the Environmental Control System (ECS module) is connected to the canister, whereby constantly clean room conditions were ensured inside. 

 

Source: retrospaceimages.com (STS-6)

 

Here is another image of the front side of the transporter in Horizontal Transportation Mode of the canister at STS-9 in late 1983 showing the side connections of the hoses at the canister. 

 

Source: forum.nasaspaceflight.com (Ares67)

 

With this the structure of the Payload Canister Transporter of that time as the basis for scratching has now been fundamentally clarified, from which it is clearly evident that the KAMAG Transporter delivered in 2000 differed from the early transporters by having a clearly different structure especially at its back side. 

 

Source: mediaarchive.ksc.nasa.gov

 

Besides the fact that there was only one driver's cab at the front side, one can see this large cavity at the back side that I had noticed all along.  In addition, the rear end is stretched far too long due to the perspective distortion of the photo, which has surprised me and initially irritated me. 

 

Consequently I have to revise the design of my side walls again and adapt some details to the outfit of the STS-6 transporter. 

Edited February 10, 2022 by spaceman

[K2Pete]

This is excellent information! I had never given any thought to just how the Payload was inserted into the Shuttle ... and this previously unknown vehicle ... I have to wonder if it's used/sold elsewhere or was this a "one-off" used for this specific purpose?

 

Thanx Manfred!

 

Pete

[spaceman]

Good Afternoon Pete,

 

and thanks for your interest in these Launch Pad vehicles away from the here in ARC popular Space Shuttle and Apollo models. 

 

As one can see in this photo of the 2000 newly delivered transporters to replace the 20 year old predecessors, the space next to the driver's cab for the Environmental Control System (ECS Module) was still empty, which is why I assume, that the transporters were later outfitted in the KSC with some of the four subsystems for monitoring the environment inside the canister in the KSC: the Electrical Power System (EPS), the Environmental Control System (ECS), the  Instrumentation and Communications System (I&CS), and the Fluids and Gases System (F&GS).
 

Source: NASA

 

This image from the STS-125 shows the transporter's onboard ECS Module while the payload canister rolls into the clean-room environment of the Payload Hazardous Servicing Facility for the loading of Hubble hardware and equipment to service the Hubble Space Telescope during this mission.

 

Source: NASA (Kim Shiflett)

 

BTW it would also be interesting to find out how many transporters were built in total for the Shuttle program.  

Edited February 11, 2022 by spaceman

[spaceman]

Hello everybody,

 

next, I tried to adapt the previous side walls of the transporter to the STS-6 outfit of that time. 

 

 

To do this, I have carried out extensive analyzes of my reference photos from that time, through which I have recognized some typical differences in detail, especially on the front and back side. 

 

 

These two photos by James MacLaren were very helpful, 

 

Source: 16streets.com/MacLaren

 

 

where one can see, among other things, that the driver's cabin had a different shape at that time and the driver's door had a larger rectangular window. There were also added some instruments on the side panels as well as the modules on the back that I tried to replicate. 

 

 

As a result, the NASA Worm logo of that time also moved to the right place further back.  I've then scaled these details down to my scale (1:160) and photo-mounted them on the previous side walls and added the front and back sides from that time, which I then liked much better.  

 

 

 

These modified side walls I've then first glued again onto a Balsa board (2 mm), but then quickly realized that this two-dimensional representation of the walls with textures similar to David Maier's Paper Kits looks a bit too unrealistic, since some of the details have to be behind the 2 mm thick side walls, such as in particular the double twin wheel sets, about the modeling of which I was uncertain for a long time ... 

 

After careful consideration, I then discarded my previous Scratch concept and thought about a more realistic construction of the transporter,  whereto I carefully separated the driver's cabins and modules at the end of the side walls.

 

 

Some more information on that will come next time.   

Edited February 17, 2022 by spaceman

[spaceman]

Hello everybody,

 

let's continue, and with that to the Twin wheel sets, the structure of which, starting from this old photo, I only gradually got to understand. 

 

Source: Space Congress Proceedings 2. - 1980 (17th) A New Era In Technology (W. H. Rock)

 

A bit of luck is part of it! 

 

While browsing the KAMAG websites, I came across these principle sketches in an image brochure some time ago, wherewith I have a good chance for scratching the chassis of the transporter. 

 

Source: tii-group.com

 

 

I first divided a wheel row in the middle, mirrored one of the halves, 

 

         

 

and then scaled to my scale (1:160) and printed out in shades of grey, which therefore match the side walls very well. 

 

 

Using this template, I can now produce the 48 wheels (Ø 6 mm, 2 mm thick) of the early transporter, which are then glued together with spacers, and hint at the 12 pendulum axles with two twin wheel sets each. The only things missing then are the hydraulic push rods, which I'll do without because you're unlikely to see them under the finished transporter. 

 

 

In reality, this hydraulically supported Pendulum axle looks like this, whose construction principle was created by SCHEUERLE in 1956, which meanwhile, like KAMAG, belongs to the TII Group, which facilitated the arrangement of several axes in a row, wherewith the production of multiple-axle heavy-duty vehicles began. The hydraulic pendulum axle is still the main principle of modern heavy-duty transport worldwide.

 

Source: tii-group.com

 

 

In my modified Scratch concept, I planned to design the driver's cabs and the modules on the front and back as individual components, for which I rescaled all detailed views again based on the reduced width (40 mm) between the side walls. 

 

These are the designs for the modules on the front (top) and back covered with the corresponding detailed views, 

 

 

 

and these are the prepared parts for the modules, which can be glued under the ceiling between the side walls of the transporter after building. 

 

 

 

And I will now still design a similar part for the two Driver's cabins. 

Edited February 19, 2022 by spaceman

[Slartibartfast]

“... The hydraulic pendulum axle is still the main principle of modern heavy-duty transport worldwide.”

 

Also used in aircraft such as the Hornet/Super Hornet.

[spaceman]

Hi Bruce,

 

I'm sure you mean the nose gear, but that's a different weight class. 

[spaceman]

Hello everybody,

 

here is a small video addendum for all interested guys who want to see such a Heavy-duty Transport in action, which would be unthinkable without these ingenious Hydraulically supported Pendulum axles. 

 

 

Such heavy-duty transports are really incredible,  especially since you not only have to use powerful Trucks but also Self-propelled platform vehicles in combination with Transport swivel bolsters, so that you can get around tight corners with those overly long colossuses.  

 

Source: SCHEUERLE

 

But for the Payload Canister the "small" Transporter is enough, that the NASA at KAMAG had commissioned in 1979.  

[spaceman]

Hello everybody,

 

and this is now the layout for the Driver's cabins. 

Then all edges and adhesive folds of the parts were carefully pre-scored,  

 

 

folded, 

 

 

and finally glued the parts together, like here the I&CS/F&GS Modules for the back side (left), as well as the ECS Module for the front side, 

 

 

and here with the associated Driver's cabins. 

 

 

And so the parts are then arranged under the ceiling panel and between the side walls of the transporter. 

 

 

 

The next thing to do is to continue with the Pendulum axles and Twin wheel sets.  

[K2Pete]

That was an interesting video, thanx for the added value, or the BONUS feature!! 

I had not heard of Kamag but had heard of, and seen the Mammoet vehicle during some construction in these parts and realized that all the wheels could turn ... to allow for almost 45 degree motion to the side ... I'll assume Kamag is the same.

 

This vehicle is gonna be a nice addition to the overall build, but the casual viewer will have no idea as to the amount of thought and effort you've put into building it ... but we do!

 

Thanx Manfred!

Pete

 

[spaceman]

Thanks Pete, 

 

this Hydraulically supported Pendulum axle was Made in Germany by SCHEUERLE in 1956. 

In 1979, KAMAG received the first NASA order for the Payload canister transporters. 

 

Have a look at this monster transport of an Aluminum melting plant module on SCHEUERLE "SPMTs"! 

 

Source: SCHEUERLE

 

The SCHEUERLE SPMT is a modular, self-propelled transporter that can be combined to form any size transport group and has completely changed the transport industry since its market launch in 1983.

 

And here's an image brochure for a quick browse through the product range with sensational images. 

 

https://www.tii-group.com/fileadmin/data_all/brochures/2019/tii-group_10_TII_Imagebroschuere_EN.pdf

 

BTW, you hit the nail on the head, Pete. 

 

I've also been asked many times that some of these hidden parts are no longer visible on the model, to which I always reply:

Yes, but I know they are there! 

Edited February 23, 2022 by spaceman

[spaceman]

Hello friends,

 

and so now to the Pendulum axles of this 48-wheeled monster transporter, which inspire me with quite a bit of respect. 

 

Source: Space Congress Proceedings 2. - 1980 (17th) A New Era In Technology (W. H. Rock)

 

On this image of a similar transporter one can see the arrangement of the axles with the twin wheel sets more clearly. 

 

Source: tii-group.com

 

In principle, the structure is meanwhile clear to me, but now it's about the practical implementation by scratching, which I've been fiddling around for a long time ... 

 

Finally I came up with the following simplified solution. 

 

First of all, I need the 48 wheels, which I then have to conjure up somehow on the Pendulum axles. 

 

For this I have the cut out wheel discs in a 1st Variant glued to balsa wood (2 mm) and laboriously cut off all around with a razor blade, 

 

 

which is not exactly a cakewalk,  which is why I have to think of another technique for this. 

 

 

For the continuous holding of the twin wheel sets, I also transferred the wheel set contour under the side wall onto Balsa wood (2 mm), 

 

 

 

 

and roughly sawed them out just as laboriously with a mini saw. 

 

 

 

After that I have as a 2nd Wheel variant punched out small round blanks (Ø 7 mm) from cardboard (1 mm) with a hole punch and glued them together, which is easier to do than the Balsa carving. 

 

For a more accurate prototype, I also punched round blanks out of Styrene (2 mm), which was quite an ordeal and therefore cannot be used for series production.  

 

 

These twin wheel sets are provisionally placed on the holder, which looks too unrealistic to me, since this holder should already have a certain ground clearance.

 

 

So I shortened the lower part of the holder a bit so that the wheel sets protrude a little bit, 

 

 

which I like already better. 

 

 

And so I would try it now with twin wheel sets on both sides of the holder to see how it looks then. 

Edited February 25, 2022 by spaceman