A Big Discovery

[DavidQ]

I've wanted to build the 2001 Discovery for a long, long time. Finally, a found a superb card model online by UHU02.

That model has now found a home in my home.

I decided to upscale the model, so that it would have a spine the size of a BT-20 tube, instead of a smallish 9mm spine. This, however makes for a BT20 sized rocket that is on the order of 7 feet long, which, as we can guess, presents some interesting engineering challenges. But, being one to rationally disregard obvious concerns, like that of trying to launch a skinny rocket with a relatively weights on the very ends and that will osscilate like a plucked piano string, I decided to just jump in.

I'd like to share the model, but the author has insisted that he be able to make it hard to find. I'll point out that if you want it, you can join the zealot card modeling site, do a search of UHU02, and follow his hints.

The original plans come on about 24 sheets of cardstock. But, since I'm upscaling it by 2.3x to get the BT20 spine, I'm taking many more. I've not counted how many, as that's a piddling detail that is unrelated to deciding to build, to building, or to looking back on what I built. Actually, I'm not finished with the upscaling, so don't yet know how many sheets it will take.

Additionally, I modified the images slightly. I don't like solid black lines for the cutout lines. I think it highlights the wrong part of the model. I want attention drawn to the places I didn't cut, instead of the edges that I did cut. So, I modified each of the black edges to be light gray edges.

Here is some of my progress, starting with the construction of the spine. It stands taller than my home-built photo studio, which is about 4 feet tall (1.3 meters for the furriners in the audience). The spine is not much more than a bundh of BT20s attached end-to-end, with wraps which will indicate where other pieces will go.