Wernher von Braun "Round-The-Moon ship"

[merriman]

Great work, merriman !

The last one is the von Braun Ferry Rocket, could you tell me more about the
moon orbiter, please ? I'm not adept in space projects, but perhaps we should
change the title to make it clearer for people like me ?

Make the changes required, Jemiba. Forum management is not my specialty.

As to the moon-obiter vehicle: The concept originated in a tangible form when von Braun prepared an orthographic projection of the proposed 'lunar reconnaissance' vehicle in the early 50's. His usual graph-paper put to the task, as so many of his concepts were. As I understand it, this and the other initial concepts were forwarded to the Collier's team of illustrators who refined the vehicles into living, breathing, photo-real illustrations for Collier's magazine (and later, with supplemental work, the Viking Press books).

This was long before von Braun's association with Disney. You know ... when people actually read magazine articles and books.

Seems that each artist (and I don't use the term lightly, EVER!) made a specific vehicle his own: Bonestell lavished his attention on the moon-orbiter; Klep did that beautiful cut-away of the cargo-rocket; and Freeman -- by far the best hardware and human-form illustrator of the bunch -- did the moon-lander and the magnificent cut-away of the Cargo-Rocket 3rd-stage.

The Viking books, in the appendices, quantified vehicle dimensions, weights, and other specifics that defined the vehicles covered in the text -- a god-send for the modeler wishing to make heads and tails of the many illustrations within the body of the books texts.

For example, it was explained that the motors of a cargo-rockets 3rd-stage would be pressed into service aboard the built-in-earth-orbit, moon-orbiter. Study of the Freeman, Klep, and Bonestell illustrations of the winged 3rd-stage vehicle helped me refine the arrangement.

For detailing not evident in the Collier's-Viking illustrations I was helped by Langley's Theodore A. Talay, who copied V-2 engine documents for me. I used these to work out the casting and access details of the turbines and pumps as well as plumbing and foundation methodologies.

As I enhanced the design of the motor area (the only solid information was the Bonestell painting and line-drawing, and von Braun's graph-paper study -- each conflicting a bit with the other), I kept worked to keep the technology of my display rooted in the times of the Redstone: the period in which the moon-orbiter was envisioned.

So, the pumps were spun by turbines driven by steam produced by H2O2 gas-generators; the single-axis motor tilting mechanism (I almost said gimbal) was chain driven; the regeneratively cooled motors employed cases, not tubes; and the plumbing was equipped with expansion bellows. I had to keep the 'look' of a vehicle designed at the dawn of the space-age.

Quality model building is much more than slapping part-A to part-B; or pushing a mouse along a CAD menue.



David

 

[Jemiba]

I hope it's ok, that I've split the "What Might have Been" thread and merged it with two
older topics about the von Braun moonship designs and with that about the Ferry Rocket

 

[merriman]

I hope it's ok, that I've split the "What Might have Been" thread and merged it with two
older topics about the von Braun moonship designs and with that about the Ferry Rocket

No problem at all. Better to have it all under 'one roof'.

David

 

[Paul Lloyd]

An interesting insight into your design choices, Mr Merriman. Could you tell us more about the history of your model? If I understand you, it was a commission for IBM in the 1990s?

 

[merriman]

An interesting insight into your design choices, Mr Merriman. Could you tell us more about the history of your model? If I understand you, it was a commission for IBM in the 1990s?

Yes it was. Through Fred Ordway and Lee Stanton (an outstanding model builder).

Here's a project I did for myself a while back:



From the George Pal movie, The Conquest of Space.

David

 

[royabulgaf]

As to how the "passive thermal control slats"

I thought they controlled the Cavorite

 

[magnus_z]

1955 or 1956:

Museo Nazionale della Scienza e della Tecnica
Piazza S. Vittore 17 A - Milano
Astronautica - Astronave in avvicinamentoalla Luna

 

[merriman]

Three more representations of the von Braun style of thermal control








David

 

[Grey Havoc]

and his famous 1952 gigant Moonlander

i got presumption this is here in reality
his Mars Spaceship diverted to go land on Moon !

art from Fred Freeman

With regard as to the 'Sinus Roris expedition' which would have taken place in 1977:

Von Braun Lunar Lander

Von Braun Lunar Lander

www.astronautix.com

I, ah 'borrowed' this image from our friends over at What If Modelers (h/t Weaver):

 

[edwest4]

The wings and fins are totally impractical.