Way in the back of my mind I had been thinking of trying to make an XD-1 Discovery from the movie 2001 Space Odyssey. The 3D designs are out there so I would have a big head start. The model comes in at around 115 cm or so without rescaling it (not sure how heavy but it will likely need quite a few newtons to get off the ground). https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:950664
Looking for ideas for how I could maybe make this work...
A couple of things are tripping me up:
1) No fins (although decent amount of drag)
-- I was assuming I could use clear fins that could be attached for launch (should be possible to hide mounts in the complex details of body).
2) Body is really thin (no room for a body tube)
-- Easiest is probably to eject the whole stem and nose and hide parachute(s) in the rear body next to engine tubes. I also considered connecting a piston to a fiberglass rod that would slide inside a narrow tube. Outer tube would have details mounted to it and piston would shift inner rod forward and pop off the sphere nose cone. I also experimented with modifying the body pods so they can be mounted on a BT-50 tube but it seemed to mess with the look too much.
3) Engines are really thin (no room to put Rocket engines)
-- I spent time mocking up and playing around with options for the engine mounts. Basically looking to distort existing designs to work with Estes engines (13, 18, or 24mm). This is where I have spent the most time. Left version is original design (does not work, but is for comparison), 2nd is made fatter to incorporate 3x 18mm engines, 3rd design includes 1x 24mm mount (keeps original design and attempts to hide engine in middle), 4th includes 2x 18mm engine mounts (allows me to recreate look a bit more than the 3 engine version). Any votes on which one looks better?
Mini engines are also kinda big compared to the model but it would be cool to get 6x mini engines in there...
Not sure how heavy this will wind up being but max lift for various combos of engines:
2x C5-3 = 454
1x E12-4 = 482
6x A10-3T = 510
3x C5-3 = 681
2x D12-3 = 792
Looking for ideas for how I could maybe make this work...
A couple of things are tripping me up:
1) No fins (although decent amount of drag)
-- I was assuming I could use clear fins that could be attached for launch (should be possible to hide mounts in the complex details of body).
2) Body is really thin (no room for a body tube)
-- Easiest is probably to eject the whole stem and nose and hide parachute(s) in the rear body next to engine tubes. I also considered connecting a piston to a fiberglass rod that would slide inside a narrow tube. Outer tube would have details mounted to it and piston would shift inner rod forward and pop off the sphere nose cone. I also experimented with modifying the body pods so they can be mounted on a BT-50 tube but it seemed to mess with the look too much.
3) Engines are really thin (no room to put Rocket engines)
-- I spent time mocking up and playing around with options for the engine mounts. Basically looking to distort existing designs to work with Estes engines (13, 18, or 24mm). This is where I have spent the most time. Left version is original design (does not work, but is for comparison), 2nd is made fatter to incorporate 3x 18mm engines, 3rd design includes 1x 24mm mount (keeps original design and attempts to hide engine in middle), 4th includes 2x 18mm engine mounts (allows me to recreate look a bit more than the 3 engine version). Any votes on which one looks better?
Mini engines are also kinda big compared to the model but it would be cool to get 6x mini engines in there...
Not sure how heavy this will wind up being but max lift for various combos of engines:
2x C5-3 = 454
1x E12-4 = 482
6x A10-3T = 510
3x C5-3 = 681
2x D12-3 = 792