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UNIQUE INEXPENSIVE MODEL KITS OF SPACE EXPLORING MACHINES FROM SCI
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Space Craft® SCIENCE KITs
are intended for interested people of almost all ages.
They might not be suitable for children younger than twelve
years of age, although this depends on individual motivation and skill.
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All spacecraft photos in this website (except of NASA's free kits) show assembled Space Craft SCIENCE KITs.
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Which kits should you start with? The Lunar Prospector, LPM, is the easiest to assemble. The result, however, looks like an amazing spacecraft, and makes a fine display. The next in complexity is Voyager. But it, too, is relatively easy to assemble, and the result is a beautiful representation of NASA's science and engineering masterpiece. By far, the SCI Kit model of the revolutionary mountain-top Keck Telescope is the most difficult to assemble. Like all the others, of course, careful assembly will result in an astounding model to display. You can also get fully a 3D-printed Keck Telescope from our Shapeways SCI Shop.
When you select an SCI Kit in the list below, you'll get a larger picture of the assembled scale model, and smaller images of some of its laser-cut, recycled paper card stock parts, unassembled. You'll also find descriptions, pricing and ordering information. There's also a link to the full text from the kit's fact sheet.
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When you process your order, you'll see FastSpring in some of the URLs that we connect you to. You'll be in good hands! Payment and checkout are easy and truly international, in currencies and languages worldwide. Included are all major credit cards, PayPal, and payment through Amazon.com.
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Click logo to see the FastSpring site.
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SCI Quality 3D Printing
FULLY 3D-PRINTED ITEMS
You can go to our Shapeways SCI Shop, and order fully 3D-printed items. Shapeways will take care of everything, and they'll ship your 3D-printed SCI product directfly to you.
This includes our first completely 3D-printed model. It's a 1:170 printed plastic version of the Keck Telescope. It comes in three parts, which you can order separately if you want to replace some of the laser-cut parts in the Keck Telescope SCI Kit (see below). Or if you order all three, you'll have most of the model done; just add the mirror parts from your SCI Kit.
FILES FOR YOUR 3D PRINTER
Download 3D print files (.stl) from this SCI website, and print them at home, office, school, or a third-party online service. Use them for added realism when you assemble an SCI Kit.
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The Hubble Space Telescope (HST) Space Craft SCIENCE KIT is our most popular. It's very realistic, and it's hard to tell from a distance that it's made of paper. Many of its parts have bonded metal foil and look like they're made of metal. Blue and gold-foil solar panels. Internal details include reflective primary and secondary mirrors, printed trusses and baffles. Information online includes how to modify the completed model to illustrate installing new instruments as astronauts did first in December, 1993, and again on later upgrade missions. Assembled model is about 10 inches (26 cm) overall. Scale is approximately 1/65. Available as an Online Kit (parts only) for $12.95. Assembly instructions and information are here on the web. Shipping is FREE within the U.S.
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The Lunar Prospector Space Craft SCIENCE KIT represents NASA's lunar orbiter which discovered water at the luar poles. It mapped the whole Moon's mineral composition and gravity field, then made a controlled dive into an icy polar crater to end its mission on 7/31/99. The advanced design model kit has lots of details in gold and silver metal foil, and color lithography. The assembled model is about 1/25 scale, measuring 30 cm (12 inches) overall. This is a relatively easy kit to assemble... the hard part is waiting for the glue to dry! Instructions are provided for assembling the kit in its lunar mapping configuration, or in its launch configuration. Available as an Online Kit (parts only) for $12.95. Assembly instructions and information are here on the web. Shipping is FREE within the U.S.
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The Mars Global Surveyor Space Craft SCIENCE KIT represents NASA's Mars orbiter. This model kit has large areas of gold metal foil, and details in color lithography and silver metal foil. The assembled model is about 1/40 scale, measuring 38 cm (15 inches) overall. It has a tremendous amount of detail, yet is not very difficult to assemble. Instructions are online for assembling the kit in any one of several configurations to represent the spacecraft in flight. Available as an Online Kit (parts only) for $12.95. Assembly instructions and information are here on the web. Shipping is within the U.S.
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The Voyager Space Craft SCIENCE KIT represents NASA's twin mariners of the outer solar system. The Voyager kit has all the spacecraft's major components represented, including the Greetings from Earth record carried on their interstellar flight. Styrofoam High-Gain Antenna Dish adds realism. Online fact sheet includes detailed information about the twin spacecraft, and about their encounters with Saturn, Jupiter, Uranus, and Neptune, as well as their recent sensing of the distant edge of the Sun's influence, called the heliopause. Assembled model is about 22 inches (55 cm) overall including booms, when assembled in Flight Configuration. Can also be assembled in Launch Configuration. Scale approximately 1/30.
Available as an Online Kit (parts only) for $14.95. Assembly instructions and information are here on the web. Shipping is FREE within the U.S.
Voyager HGA assembly and Mag Boom are available from the Shapeways SCI Shop, as 3D printed items.
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The Galileo Space Craft SCIENCE KIT represents NASA's Jupiter orbiter and atmospheric probe. The Galileo spacecraft orbited Jupiter from December 1995 until September 2003, sending images and other data back from the planet and its diverse moons. This is an extraordinary piece of laser-cutting work, with extremely intricate detail! Movable parts illustrate Galileo's spin bearing assembly, and scan platform, with its optical instruments. The atmospheric probe unit is removable. Assembled model is about 12 inches (32 cm) overall. Scale is approximately 1/45. Available as an Online Kit (parts only) for $12.95. Assembly instructions and information are here on the web. Shipping is FREE within the U.S.
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The Magellan Space Craft SCIENCE KIT represents NASA's Venus radar mapper. The kit looks quite realistic, with blue & silver solar panels. Lots of bonded metallic gold foil illustrates thermal control components. Styrofoam High-Gain Antenna dish similar to Voyager's. Information is included on Magellan's 3 modes of radar sensing which it used to map Venus's cloud-hidden surface, Magellan's aerobraking adventure, and the Venus gravity field survey. Assembled model is about 10 inches (26 cm) overall. Scale is the same as the Voyager model, approximately 1/30.
Available as an Online Kit (parts only) for $14.95. Assembly instructions and information are here on the web. Shipping is FREE within the U.S.
Magellan (same as Voyager) HGA assembly is available from the Shapeways SCI Shop, as a 3D printed item.
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The Keck Telescope Space Craft SCIENCE KIT: High atop the 14,000-ft Mauna Kea in Hawaii, twin Keck Telescopes have ten-meter diameter primary mirrors of revolutionary design with computer controlled, thin hexagonal segments. This extraordinary feat of engineering enables telescopes to have larger and larger apertures, now freed of the physical constraints of monolithic glass optics, whose practical limit was 5 meters in diameter. The Keck Telescope model kit is an amazingly faithful reproduction. Reflective metal-foil clad primary, secondary, and tertiary mirrors illustrate the telescope's ground-breaking optical function. The design of the Keck's computer controlled actuator system which actively supports the segmented primary mirror is clearly represented. This extraordinary model is definitely the most challenging SCI KIT to assemble. Assembled model is about 5.75 inches (14.5 cm) overall. Scale is approximately 1/170.
Available as an Online Kit (parts only) for $17.95. Assembly instructions and information are here on the web. Shipping is FREE within the U.S.
Also available from the Shapeways SCI Shop, in the form of three 3D printed items. Use them with parts from your laser-cut Keck Telescope SCI Kit; they're all the same scale.
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The Keck Telescope Display Dome Display your Keck Telescope model in fine style using this near-scale size clear acrylic dome. Suggestions are offered for creating your own from scratch. Its shape reproduces the key visual feature of the Keck Observatory's domes in Hawaii, while protecting your completed model. Suggestions are included for incorporating your Keck Telescope and Dome into a nice display, including sources for a wooden base, and other details.
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The High-Gain Antenna Space Craft® Component is already included in every Voyager and Magellan kit. We make it available separately for other applications you might have in mind. This high quality article is made of high-density stryofoam in a special high-pressure steam molding process to ensure smooth surfaces. It mimics the visual appearance of the paraboloid HGA on NASA's Voyager (outer solar system) and Magellan (Venus) spacecraft, for which it serves at a scale of 1/30. Perfect for NASA's free Cassini model at 1/37 scale. Figure: speheroid. Other applications and scales are described here. Available for $4.95 each. Inquire about quantity purchases. Shipping is FREE within the U.S.
Also available from the Shapeways SCI Shop, as an assembly of HGA with sun-sensor hole, Tripod, Subreflector, and LGA. Use with your Voyager and Magellan SCI Kit; they're all the same scale.
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The free Cassini 1/37-scale model shown assembled.
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Some FREE Spacecraft models from NASA which you can download, print, cut out, and glue together. Of course, these free model kits are not quite as detailed as SCI's laser-cut Space Craft SCIENCE KITs, and they take more work to assemble because you have to cut out the parts. But they're very informative and interesting projects. Have a look. The assembly instructions are on the web, some with color illustrations, and you can see exactly what is required before deciding whether to download the model parts files.
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Now that you've built some scale models of spacecraft, explore how they work!
CLICK IMAGE
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How do you get to another planet?
Can gravity assist you? How do spacecraft communicate? Broad in scope and loaded with references, Basics of Space Flight identifies the many fields and concepts associated with robotic interplanetary space exploration, and shows how they operate together. Popular with teachers, students, and anyone who is curious about "how they do that." In this edition, its many illustrations are in color; a less expensive black & white edition is also available (see Amazon listings).
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