FROG MODEL KITS: A QUICK LOOK AT SOME CLASSICS

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SPACE IN MINIATURE MODEL REFERENCE GUIDES

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Mat Irvine reports Mike Mackowski is a long-time space modeller and one of the main members of the online Yahoo ‘Space Modelers’ group. Over some years now, Mike has compiled seven hardcopy books especially for modellers on spacecraft topics, including titles for Gemini, Mercury and two volumes on Apollo, one for the Command Service Module and one for the Lunar Module. Now he has produced his first ‘Tech Report’, a series intended to be shorter and to be available only as a download, thus having the advantage that they can be in colour. Skylab details Tech Report #1.0 (TR1) is on Skylab, prompted by Mike’s particular interest in America’s first space station. Mike worked for a time at McDonnell Douglas in St Louis, where Skylab’s airlock module was built. Previously he had spent time as a student at NASA’s Marshall Spaceflight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, where the Skylab trainer was housed. He was also at Marshall when Skylab was actually launched in 1973. What’s in the TR1 pdf TR1 ...
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DRONE AERODYNAMICS SHOWN IN AMAZING NASA COMPUTER MODEL

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FOR DECADES, NASA HAS USED computer models to simulate the airflow around aircraft, in order to test designs and especially, to improve aerodynamic performance. At the NASA Ames Research Center in California, researchers used this technique to explore the aerodynamics of a popular consumer drone, a modified DJI Phantom 3 quadcopter.  According to Ames, the simulation reveals the complex motions of air particles, made especially so by the interactions between the Phantom 3's four twin-blade rotors and the X-shaped body. In the video, airflow interactions are shown as undulating lines, low-pressure air in blue, high-pressure in red. The drone that NASA chose, the highly respected DJI Phantom 3, is a good example of a serious-amateur level machine.   Drone manufacturer DJ reckons the all-white machine can do plenty: * Easy to Fly: An intelligent flight system automatically keeps your Phantom 3 Standard in the air and under your control. * Amazing Images: Take stunning 2.7K HD vid...
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LUNOKHOD MOON LANDER - THE LITTLE ROVER THAT COULD

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Mat Irvine reports Today is the 37th anniversary of the second - and last - landing on the Moon by a Soviet automated rover, the eight-wheel Lunokhod 2, taken to the lunar surface by the Luna 21 carrier vehicle. Following the Lunokhod 1 that landed on November 17, 1970, Lunokhod 2 performed even better, sending back more than 80,000 TV images and travelling nearly 37 km (23 miles) over a period of some four months, until it stopped working. The precise reason for this has never really been determined, but it’s thought that either moon dust covered the radiators and it overheated, or perhaps it fell into a crater - or both. The Lunokhods (Russian for 'Moonwalker') are arguably the most delightful-looking spacecraft ever designed, fact or fiction. They actually look more as if they were created by Rowland Emett (famed for his whimsical creations) than as working scientific equipment. A Lunokhod would make a great model kit, and although none has appeared to date, there is the ter...
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