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Space Shuttle Launch Pad 39A with Challenger STS-6


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This puts my LED work well into the shade.

Excellent work Manfred, looking forward to see how this all comes together.

Cheers,

Warren

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Thanks Warren for your interest and the nice words. :worthy:

Very interesting for me that you're also a friend of the lighting of model kits, as I have seen on your website. :coolio:

We should keep in touch, stay tuned!

:bye:

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wewj.jpg
Source: NASA

Thank you for posting this last image of Columbia for STS-1 Manfred. The image has so much detail to observe, such as the board/plates laid over the rail track for the crawler to cross over. Also it shows the 'international Orange' colours showing through the dark grey of the Launch Umbilical Tower (top twelve levels from the Saturn/Apollo days) which it was repainted in after it was removed from the MLP and re-assembled alongside the fire trench.

On the MLP we can observe the raised plating, covering the lift shaft where the LUT used to stand; and also the white painted External Tank.

Lots and lots of detail! :thumbsup: thank you very much for posting this one.

Mike

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Thank you for posting this last image of Columbia for STS-1 Manfred. The image has so much detail to observe, such as the board/plates laid over the rail track for the crawler to cross over. Also it shows the 'international Orange' colours showing through the dark grey of the Launch Umbilical Tower (top twelve levels from the Saturn/Apollo days) which it was repainted in after it was removed from the MLP and re-assembled alongside the fire trench.

On the MLP we can observe the raised plating, covering the lift shaft where the LUT used to stand; and also the white painted External Tank.

Lots and lots of detail! :thumbsup: thank you very much for posting this one.

Mike

Hello Mike,

yep, these are awesome pictures of STS-1 (1981), which are really an amazing source for my STS-6 (1983) Launch pad too, :coolio: although only two years later the FSS already again looked a little bit different. rolleyes.gif

BTW, if you look this same picture, you can see that the colors are different and your observed International Orange looks more like a kind of red, because the colors don't look always the same on same pictures. :photo:

sts-1_rollout.jpg

BTW, as far as I know, the discoloration of the Apollo orange to red should be rather an effect of aging and corrosion. The FSS tower was only later gradually gray overpainted step by step. gut.gif

And now to the rebuild of the FSS by using levels of the old LUT. As far as I know from a reliable source, not the 12 top levels of the LUT were used for the new FSS. nein.gif

As you can see in this drawing Level 80 to 280 were used for the FSS, Level 300-340 were removed and Level 360-380 mounted on 280 as roof.

ed0u.jpg

Source: Mischa Klement, personal communication (based on NASA drawing)

These are only small but fine distinctions. zustimm.gif

hallo.gif

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Hi Manfred,

thank you very much for the clarification of the LUT levels used in the FSS. :clap2: Even at 65 years of age :spudniksmurf: I still love to learn and am grateful to people who can help me expand my knowledge. :book:

Cheers

Mike

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Thanks Mike for your nice words, I fully agree with you. Our age is not so important, I learn every day new and interesting things about this brilliant Shuttle Technology that inspires me again and again. :coolio:

Hi there,
in the meantime I looked more closely at the Access Arms at the Tower in order to count the local lamps. In addition I have here a suitable visual attunement from the preparatory phase to the STS-6.
f1aq.jpg
Source: retrospaceimages.com (STS-6)
These are the Orbiter Access Arm (OAA) with the White Room,
the Oxygen Vent Arm (OVA) with the Beanie Cap,
and the Gaseous Hydrogen Vent Arm (HVA), also called Intertank Access Arm (IAA).
For image analysis, I have partly fall back on old pictures from the early years of the shuttle program, which comes in part from the work-up phase of the Pad 39B. These are scans from the photo album of a friend who worked there and has experienced a lot. :analintruder:
And so directly to the OAA, which can be seen on this old picture before mounting on the pad 39B. Okay, the quality is not great, but these images are a significant historical fundus, which I do not want to miss, as these images are really real-time documents from the early years to the Shuttle STS-6 around. And much more important than image quality is, that one can exactly recognize the 9 lamps anyway.
x84q.jpg
Source: NasaSpaceflight.com (J. MacLaren)
Here is a photo of the STS-6, on which the former lamps are beautiful to see.
1bz0.jpg
Source: retrospaceimages.com (STS-6)
As I said, the lamps saw later completely different, just more modern, and were not mounted in gait center but on the side (left). BTW, there were at that time much more lights than in later years. gut.gif
And so now to the OVA, in this picture still without Beanie Cap, I have viewed from several perspectives before the count of the lamps.
3tvsv.jpg
Source: NasaSpaceflight.com (J. MacLaren)
This arm has six standard lamps (1-6) and two smaller spotlights (7/8), so a total of 8 lamps.
msbcx.jpg
Source: NasaSpaceflight.com (J. MacLaren)
Missing only the HVA, that is a real steel frame monster solely due to its size, which you can see in this picture, but from a later mission.
The frame structure consists essentially of three parts:
The huge multistory Front building is firmly connected with the Tower, but had only the top three floors during STS-6, the lower small 4th floor was retrofitted later.
rz0ub.jpg
Source: NASA
The actual Swing arm allows mating of the External tank (ET) umbilicals as well as contingency access to the ET intertank compartment, which rotated 210° to its extended position at the ET and was connected with this. The Elephant’s Trunk called umbilical vent line provides continuous venting of the external tank during and after loading of the volatile liquid hydrogen. The vent line is disconnected from the ET at first motion of the stack and retracts vertically downward to a stored position.
And for the lamps count it now goes back to STS-6. And the following image at first one can see these 13 lamps which are directly mounted on the outside of the Front building. gut.gif
gx78.jpg
Source: retrospaceimages.com (STS-6)
But that's not all, because in this picture of the STS-1 with connected Swing arm and Trunk (white) one can immediately recognize in front of the ET a lamp pole with 4 lamps, I hope so. :thumbsup:
a88l.jpg
Source: NASA
This results ultimately a total number of 34 lamps for the three Access arms, but this number is not exhaustive. rolleyes.gif
And so I want it to stop there for now and wish you a nice Sunday. :coolio:
hallo.gif
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Thank you Dan for your compliments. :worthy:

I have already said several times, the lighting of the entire Launch pad is more of a challenge than I had initially thought, and only in the result of my complete inventory of all the lamps (that I can detect) I will not know what it really means and then decide what I eventually can realize thereof. gut.gif

And it's not about completeness, that would be unrealistic, especially at this scale 1:144/160! shocked.gif

hallo.gif

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Hallo all together,


in order to finally complete the preliminary planning of lighting, I've now specifically looked at the transitions between the FSS and RSS from different perspectives, thus the previous number of lamps has increased slightly. rolleyes.gif


And I had just to be careful that already detected lamps not to be counted again, which was not quite easy.


Here are just a few pictures of it, in which the far not detected lamps are circled green.


tfqv.jpg

Source: NASA


0fxz.jpg

Source: flickr.com (S. Patlan)


b4yc.jpg

Source: flickr.com (S. Patlan)


cr8y.jpg

Source: flickr.com (S. Patlan)


Hopefully you are not blurred anything in mind because of the many colorful rings, but comforting you, so it will now really be enough. w00t.gif


And now, a look at Hammerhead Crane, because there are in addition to the 4 already shown spotlights at the foot of the Lightning Mast yet these 4 lamps here.


imy0.jpg

Source: NASA


And because I also want to build a diorama finally, I will soon schedule the 4 Floodlight masts around the pad. gut.gif


For a long time I had only ever seen newer photos in which the masts had each 9 spotlights.


1h1f.jpg

Source: NASA


But at pictures of the STS-1 you can see that the masts then only had 6 spotlights,


ygi56.jpg

Source: NASA


and that was also the same two years later at the STS-6. The modernization of the masts is then done sometime later, however, I do not know. rolleyes.gif


1o70y.jpg

Source: NASA


This now results in the following preliminary number for the lamps on the pad:


- FSS, inkl. Hammerhead Crane: 104

- Access Arms (OAA, OVA, HVA): 34

- RSS: 112

- MLP, incl. warning lights: 26

- Floodlight masts: 24


That adds up to 300 lamps, shocked.gif if I have not charged me, and there's the Crawler not yet counted. For this I would estimate about 30 lamps, which then ultimately would result round 330 lamps and let the cat out of the bag.

omgsign.gif

As I said, that is first times everything just theory, but that there is now a house number for the interpretation of the new current bank, which is intended to cover all if possible! hmmm.gif


How many lights I can install it really on the pad, will then show up when I started wiring. Maybe I have to reduce the number a bit, but that is for the time being in the stars ... whistle.gif


So, that's it for today, I hear you laugh or groan already ... gr_hail.gif


hallo.gif

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Hey Kallisti and Mobydog,

thanks guys for your interest. 377.gif

Please do not panic, regarding the current requirement, which is not great. The planned power bank with power supply will supply 48 mutually independent adjustable circuits. Thus 1 - 8 LEDs per circuit can be connected in series, with each of the set current remains still constant. zustimm.gif
Even if the current per circuit is set to 6mA (which in practice is unnecessarily high) and really has all the circles, one has only 6 x 48 = 288 mA. rolleyes.gif
That's all nothing special ... gut.gif
hallo.gif
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MANFRED,

It seems that the more you look the more you find. I kinda feel sorry for unleashing this affliction upon you. The addiction grows my light master. Hang in there! I stay tuned untill next time.

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MANFRED,

It seems that the more you look the more you find. I kinda feel sorry for unleashing this affliction upon you. The addiction grows my light master. Hang in there! I stay tuned untill next time.

Hi Rich,
my lighting analysis is now complete and more lamps are not visible on my photos, although there are certainly some more lamps. gut.gif
And so the goal is now known, however, whether this dream can be achieved remains to be seen. And if it will end up being less lamps, it's not the end of the world! happy.gif
Therefore, don't worry, it will in any case be exciting ... coolio.gif
hallo.gif
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330 lamps on one kit.

That is a lot of LEDs.

Can't wait to see what this looks like when its done.

Keep up the good work.

Thanks for your nice words,

yep that's a lot of stuff, but I'll try my best, please keep one's fingers crossed for me. :thumbsup:

hallo.gif

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This is my favourite build, absolutely incredible attention to detail; as someone new to the hobby I find it inspirational and educational. Thank you Manfred.

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Hello Rez and Mike,

thanks for your kind words and following my build. And that you also have so much enthusiasm for the details, makes me happy. :worthy:

BTW, that is my intention too, to build the launch pad model and at the same time get to know this brilliant space technology closer. :coolio:

Thanks guys for your interest and stay tuned.

hallo.gif

Edited by roma847
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