Lego Mir Space Station

[Aaron Boyer]

This is a little project I've been working on for nearly a year, while using various pictures and diagrams as references. I haven't made any progress in a few months due to the fact that I'm struggling to find a job and can barely afford food, but hopefully progress will pick up once I can afford more parts from BrickLink.

It's come a long way from a blocky-looking space station I made when I was a little kid, and I'll update the pictures as I continue to make progress. I really have no clue if I'll ever build all seven modules of the station at this point, but my goal for now is to just put some finishing touches on the core module and build soyuz/progress spacecraft to go with it.

I have a handful of pictures of the interior and exterior of the core module on my flickr, so feel free to dig through them and check them out. My next goal will be to rebuild the node and the "neck" that connects it to the smaller cylindrical section of the core module in light gray, instead of having it white, then putting some finishing touches on the aft and mid-sections as soon as I can afford to do so. Hopefully I can get back into gear and make some more progress on this thing soon. :thumbup:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/58023413@N07/sets/72157626637400371/

 

[PhantomCruiser]

Dude, that's pretty cool!

 

[Capt_hensley]

Very nice, it would be huge if you built all 7 modules.

 

[Spacethingy]

That is awesome! I thought some of those photos were real...

 

[Aaron Boyer]

Very nice, it would be huge if you built all 7 modules.

It would be pretty big, considering the core module is roughly 14" long. It'll probably measure close to 3' from the docking module to Priroda. I have prototypes of Kvant-1, Kvant-2, and Kristall built, containers full of various parts for the modules, and bags with enough black modified plates with clips to build the arrays for Kvant-1 and Spektr. I have Priroda's remote sensor dish complete, and the tail section of Spektr. The only problem I'm facing is getting enough money to actually build the modules complete with radiator panels, interiors, and external equipment. I calculated that the most expensive parts will be the Sofora and Rapana girders that attach to Kvant-1, since the parts I plan on using for them are pretty rare. The docking module will be pretty expensive with all of the dark orange pieces I'll need, but nonetheless viable in the near future. I'm trying to accomplish as much as possible on a limited budget, but I'm sure things will slowly take shape over time.

One thing is certain though--I'll definitely have to use transparent beams or fishing line to support some of the solar arrays when this thing starts to grow.

 

[Orbinaut Pete]

Now *that* is truly excellent. :thumbup:

 

[fireballs619]

Very, very nice! Did you just scale it so it would look right with the minifigures, or did you use some other method of scaling?

 

[Aaron Boyer]

Very, very nice! Did you just scale it so it would look right with the minifigures, or did you use some other method of scaling?

I built it based on a 1 stud = 1 foot scale, so the minifigures are assumed to be a little over 5 feet at this scale. It would be impossible to construct the docking ports to minifig scale, considering lego minifigures are oddly proportioned compared to a real person. Everything is based as close as possible to a painstakingly constructed the module so that I can fit a minifig in each sleep compartment and shut the door without any problems.

I used Wikipedia and various other sites as reference to the proportions:

Length: 13.13 m
Diameter: 4.15 m
Wingspan: 20.73 m (with solar arrays)

I then used this lego scale converter to get the proportions as accurate as possible:

http://www.suave.net/~dave/cgi/scale.cgi?cval=14&cunit=inch&fscale=minifig&fheight=5.25&funit=foot


Another thing that proved to be invaluable to me so that I could get the proper angles was blowing this diagram up in paint until it matched the diameter of my cylinders:

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/ef/Mir_-_core_module.svg

It's not perfectly scaled, but as close as I could make it at this size, while retaining a nice proportion to minifigs. It's 14 studs wide at the aft section, just slightly less than 14 inches long (which equates to 4.27 minifig meters wide, and around 13.26 meters long, give or take a bit) It's a bit difficult to get a proper measurement of the length because of the stepped cylinder design and the weird construction techniques that I used, but the simple math that I used, combined with the diagrams that I used give me a good impression that the proportions are pretty much on the spot. I aligned the control consoles, experiment airlock, table, sleeping quarters, windows, toilet, transfer chamber, and everything else proportionately so that they fit inside perfectly. I used a cool inversion technique with old hinge pieces to make the ceiling as smooth as possible, with the tiles face-down. I'll have to gut the thing sometime and take pictures of the various methods I used to get things to stay--it's pretty crazy. The back cylindrical section was built using a technique where I arranged tiles in a circular pattern, which is about as round as I could possibly make it at 14 studs in diameter. The forward cylindrical section is 10 studs in diameter, but isn't quite as round because I used 4x4 round quarter panels and bricks spaced apart 2 studs so that I have attachment sockets for the solar arrays to rotate. I also left a hole on the top for the dorsal array, if I ever finish it.

 

[fireballs619]

Thanks for the informative post! Its been a goal of mine to do a similar project, but with the Space Shuttle. I haven't done it because of the amount of work required, as well as the final size, but its something to think about when i am bored :tiphat:

 

[MaxBuzz]

hi from 2020
program Studio 2.0 allows you to simulate any object from lego details
https://www.bricklink.com/v3/studio/download.page
e.g. voyager

the parts you used can be bought