[TC16] Helix

[Jeroen Ottens]

Hi,

Science fiction, Mars, Technic competition. No way I could resist that. So in between my house rebuilding I'll try to whip something up for this competition. I am thinking along the lines of the Odyssee (or at least that's what I think the ship in 2001 is called). So a big colonist ship to carry the intrepid adventures from Earth to Mars. Featuring a big engine, a big radio antenne, massive solarpanels and of course a rotating living quarters. Here is a first image of the central spine with the rotating drum for the living quarters:

I'd like to add some counterrotating mass as well to keep the total rotational inertia of this ship zero, but I'll have to see how this evolves.

What do you think?

 

Edited June 15, 2019 by Jeroen Ottens

[Retro]

Hi, a visitor here from the Star Wars forum (I only use one or two Technic pieces to hold a ship together - when I have to!).

I love classic Sci-Fi spaceships and I can't wait to see your finished model. It looks like a great start.

 

[Seasider]

The main ship in 2001 is called Discovery One. Looking forward to seeing your build. Think it’s going to be huge looking at the initial picture

[WvG_853]

Good idea!

[1gor]

@Jeroen Ottens it is called Discovery One. It is great challenge and I'm looking forward to see your masterpiece (it could be hanged on creeling after it is done )

Good luck

Edited June 11, 2019 by I_Igor

[Jeroen Ottens]

On 6/9/2019 at 7:42 PM, Retro said:

Hi, a visitor here from the Star Wars forum (I only use one or two Technic pieces to hold a ship together - when I have to!).

I love classic Sci-Fi spaceships and I can't wait to see your finished model. It looks like a great start.

 

Thanks, the current state of affairs is a 2001: A space odyssee meets Star Wars, so you'll may get more than you bargained for

On 6/9/2019 at 8:34 PM, Seasider said:

The main ship in 2001 is called Discovery One. Looking forward to seeing your build. Think it’s going to be huge looking at the initial picture

 

12 hours ago, I_Igor said:

@Jeroen Ottens it is called Discovery One. It ids great challenge and I'm looking forward to see your masterpiece (it could be hanged on creeling after it is done )

Good luck

Read the book, saw the movie and still mixed everything up .

Not sure yet whether this will be a masterpiece, but it sure is going to be big by the way it develops itself.

The thing I don't like about the Discovery one is the fragility of that endless central column. You can argue that there is no gravity in space, but there is still inertia. If the engines give a little skewed power the tension in that central column will make it snap in two (or three as those know who know how dried spaghetti breaks when bended to the breakingpoint). So I'd like to keep some mechanical solidity in the build. At the same time weight is everything, so thin spindly structures are still cool and acceptable in my book .

Anyways, to me it would make sense to somehow keep the rotational inertia of the whole ship zero. Instead of adding a counterrotating mass with the same rotation axle as the big cilinder I know think that having two big cilinders rotating in opposite direction on both sides of the ship would be cool as well.

And engines... You can't have enough engines to propel such a beast. So having a big chunk of engines at the back is always a good thing. Here Star Wars peaks it's head around the corner. The double wedged setup of the star destroyer is as good a design to copy as anything I guess, so I went for that. It also gives a good foundation for the rotating living quarters.

Here is the status up to now:

The central column is already starting to bend, so I'll go for a redesign of that and make it 7 studs high instead of 5. That way I can also throw in more triangles (like I used in the arms inside the rear end).

What do you think, will this marriage of genres work or will it become a bastard child?

 

Edited June 10, 2019 by Jeroen Ottens
typo

[1gor]

And I mixed up from time to time, so who I'm I too judge; I can only give suggestions, and it looks promising (IMHO). I understand that big mocs are big responsibility, but I have feeling that you have respectable experience with big MOCs 

 To make it stiffer I usually use 4 X 6 bent liftarms...and I can not imagine to build MOC without frames anymore, in fact I'm looking how to integrate more frames to make my constructions lighter as possible.

Edited June 11, 2019 by I_Igor

[ArsMan064]

Wow, it is going to be really huge model!

[sirslayer]

Cool, what is your scale???  is it close to mini figures scale.. I would like to dock with your spaceship with my shuttle if you're changing your theme

[heyitsdisty]

I like the MOC so far, but can I suggest changing the name? 

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colon_cleansing

[Seasider]

Lots of SciFi ships tend to be long and thin ... Tantive IV, Discovery One, Event Horizon, Icarus 2 (Sunshine) & The Nightflyer to name a few. Also remember in space you only need engines to get going in a certain direction unless you have plenty of energy available and want to keep on moving most craft when they’re out of an atmosphere rarely use their engines. Think Babylon 5, not Star Wars.

also @heyitsdisty is right, the ships name does sound very cleansing 

[KirTech LAB]

Awesome project!!! Looks very promising :)

[grum64]

Very much looking forward to seeing where this goes 

[Jim]

This is gonna be awesome!

[Jeroen Ottens]

Thanks everybody

On 6/11/2019 at 1:15 AM, sirslayer said:

Cool, what is your scale???  is it close to mini figures scale.. I would like to dock with your spaceship with my shuttle if you're changing your theme

It is microscale I fear. The rotating drums are supposed to be big enough to be able to walk in artificial gravity, so the people have to be quite small. I think this is more to scale with my Hindenburg project (which was a 1:100 scale)

 

On 6/11/2019 at 2:15 AM, heyitsdisty said:

I like the MOC so far, but can I suggest changing the name? 

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colon_cleansing

That is indeed an association I'd like to avoid , what about the new name?

Here is the latest status:

The central column is now 7x7 studs wide and high. This makes it much, much stronger. I also played a bit with #3 connectors to see if I could get some interesting shapes. I opted for this double helix as a nod to the life that is being carried on this vessel to the new planet.

The drums are motorized and counter-rotating. I still want to use some deployment system for the solar cells. I am thinking about a tree-like structure while using the propellors of the medium-blue/black yet as solar cells, but I haven't thought of a folding mechanism yet.

The black wedge next to the drum will house the landingcraft to bring the colonists to the surface of Mars. Some kind of opening hangarbays would be cool I think.

Suggestions for the front end are welcome as well, I haven't got a lot of inspiration for that part yet.

[Seasider]

Obvious suggestions for the front would be to house the command deck/module here with a nose like Event Horizon or one of the Star Wars Corvettes

 

this is going to be a beast of a model

Edited June 16, 2019 by Seasider

[KirTech LAB]

Wait, it's illegal to use so many red #3 connectors - your model will be disqualified :)))))

[bonox]

On 6/16/2019 at 7:22 PM, desert752 said:

Wait, it's illegal to use so many red #3 connectors - your model will be disqualified :)))))

why?

The cheapest three bricklink sellers as of today have stock of 106, 458 and 653 respectively, and all are less than 34 euro cents. I'll put them next to my huge bag of 4500 of them :)

[teos]

On 6/16/2019 at 5:22 AM, desert752 said:

Wait, it's illegal to use so many red #3 connectors - your model will be disqualified :)))))

FYI- this part isn't so rare anymore.  It was just used in Star Wars and Porsche 911 sets.  The piece is available on Lego B&P for $0.23 (USA).  

[Appie]

@bonox and @teos I think that's the joke desert752 was trying to make, hence his smiley ":)))))"

Edited June 19, 2019 by Appie