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The Apollo Education Experience Project

Building a full-scale Apollo Command Module replica

The Apollo Education Experience Project
Navigation Station – Part 8
January 10, 2020January 14, 2020 SysAdmin

Navigation Station – Part 8

Construction, Interior, Navigation

With the most difficult parts of the navigation station control panel completed, I turned to the remaining details and the final assembly. The next detail to finish was the thumbwheel for the sextant reticle brightness control. I had previously modeled some thumbwheels for other control panels, so I took that

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Navigation Station – Part 7
January 9, 2020January 22, 2020 SysAdmin

Navigation Station – Part 7

Construction, Electronics, Interior, Navigation

The next difficulty with the navigation station was the control pockets. On the real CM, these don’t have corners but rather rounded edges and appear to be molded out of a single piece of material. I chose instead to make the pockets using good ol’ MDF and hardboard. I considered

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Navigation Station – Part 6
January 8, 2020January 14, 2020 SysAdmin

Navigation Station – Part 6

Construction, Electronics, Interior, Navigation

Although the panel I just finished had depth to the switch recesses, they weren’t deep enough. So I traced the openings onto some 3/4″ MDF and cut those openings out to match. The one opening I did not cut was the rectangular opening for the Master Alarm switch/indicator. Instead, I

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Navigation Station – Part 5
January 7, 2020January 14, 2020 SysAdmin

Navigation Station – Part 5

Construction, Interior, Navigation

Next up for the navigation station: the optics control panel. This is probably one of the things I least looked forward to building because of its complexity. Not only are all the switches individually recessed in deep pockets, but each pocket is individually lit. Plus, there are the two recessed

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CM Interior – Part 7
January 2, 2020January 14, 2020 SysAdmin

CM Interior – Part 7

Construction, Interior

Now that I’ve determined how I’m going to make the doors, I have a number of other doors to make. The CM had a lot of little nooks and crannies that were used to store and stow stuff, and all were covered with doors of various sizes. Because of the

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Navigation Station – Part 4
January 1, 2020January 14, 2020 SysAdmin

Navigation Station – Part 4

Construction, Interior, Navigation

As seen in an earlier post, I had cut a closeout panel for the Lower Equipment Bay that would fit below the navigation station and provide openings for connectors for the removable rotation and translation controllers. These connectors are recessed into these openings, so I put several layers of material

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Merry Christmas!  And Happy Anniversary, Apollo 8!
December 25, 2019December 29, 2019 SysAdmin

Merry Christmas! And Happy Anniversary, Apollo 8!

Extras, Miscellaneous, Space Food

Merry Christmas, everyone! Or, since this site has viewers from all over the world, “Feliz Navidad!” “Joyeux Nöel!” “Buon Natale!” “Fröhliche Weihnachten!” “S rozhdyestvom Hristovym!” I also want to celebrate the anniversary of Apollo 8, which left lunar orbit to return to Earth on Christmas Day. Yes, I know the

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CM Interior – Part 6
December 19, 2019January 14, 2020 SysAdmin

CM Interior – Part 6

Construction, Interior

Now it’s time to start finishing up the appearance of the equipment bay half of the Command Module. I had been putting a lot of this off to prevent it from getting messed up while I worked on other things. First of all, I painted the floor. Looking at photos

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Navigation Station – Part 3
December 19, 2019December 30, 2019 SysAdmin

Navigation Station – Part 3

Construction, Navigation

I took the two hardboard faceplates for the sextant and telescope and marked the positions of the various items and attachment screws from a full-size template. I cut the hexagonal openings for the mechanical displays first, since the material would be the strongest for the jigsaw without any of the

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CM Interior – Part 5
December 18, 2019December 30, 2019 SysAdmin

CM Interior – Part 5

Construction, Interior

The equipment bay half of the CM had a number of small and large doors for various purposes, mostly for storage or stowing equipment. These doors wee all attached with continuous hinges (“piano hinges”), and each had a pair of squarish openings for the latching mechanism. The latch consisted of

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About The Apollo Project

The Apollo Education Experience Project has the goal of building a life-size replica of the Apollo Command Module designed specifically to be transported to schools and other locations, for the purpose of educating the next generation about how we were able to get to the Moon with the limited technology available 50 years ago.

Recent Posts

  • Happy New Year 2021!
  • Regent University Has Also Wrapped!
  • It’s A Wrap for MSU!
  • FDAI (or “8-Ball”) – Part 5
  • Long-Overdue Update and Major Announcements

Earlier Posts

  • January 2021 (1)
  • December 2020 (2)
  • October 2020 (2)
  • March 2020 (1)
  • February 2020 (1)
  • January 2020 (9)
  • December 2019 (11)
  • November 2019 (8)
  • October 2019 (10)
  • September 2019 (2)
  • August 2019 (1)
  • July 2019 (5)
  • June 2019 (3)
  • May 2019 (8)
  • April 2019 (2)

Categories

  • Construction (53)
    • Control Panels (14)
    • DSKY (7)
    • Electronics (16)
    • EMS (4)
    • FDAI (5)
    • Interior (20)
    • Navigation (10)
    • Structure (7)
  • Extras (3)
    • A7L Space Suit (1)
    • Space Food (2)
  • Miscellaneous (6)
  • News (6)

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