|   SCI HOME PAGE   |   CATALOG   |   HOW TO ORDER   |   GREAT SPACE LINKS   |   FAQ  | Free Spacecraft Model Kits Here's a great way to learn about lots of different spacecraft: free downloadble models. Just follow the instructions at each site. Cosmos-1 Solar Sail Spacecraft Here's the world's first solar sail spacecraft, scheduled to be launched in June 2005 by The Planetary Society. Two versions are offered. The Advanced Version has articulated solar sails to show how the spacecraft works. The website also provides a basic course in solar sailing. Model kit designs by Dave Doody. Lunar Prospector A free, downloadable Lunar Prospector 1/25 Scale Model is available. Model kit design by Dave Doody. The Lunar Prospector laser-cut SCIENCE KIT is available, too, with lots of structural detail, as well as bonded metal foil, and lithographed detail. It's the easiest of all SCI KITs to assemble. Refer to SCI's Lunar Prospector Fact Sheet and Presentation Guide for use with your free model. Cassini The international Cassini Mission to Saturn is offering two paper models of the Cassini spacecraft which you can download from the Cassini site free of charge, print onto your own card stock, cut out, and put together. One model (pictured here) is accurate to scale and very detailed, and has sixteen pages of instructions. The other model is less accurate and less detailed, and can be assembled quickly. It's a good thing the Cassini Program is offering these, because Cassini is really too big a spacecraft for SCI to make a laser-cut model large enough to be workable. Cassini launched on October 15, 1997, and is currently falling along its gravity-assist trajectory to Saturn. Detailed model kit designed for the Cassini Program by Dave Doody. Galileo The NASA Galileo Project is offering a free model of the Galileo Spacecraft that you can download from the Galileo site free of charge, print onto your own card stock, cut out, and glue together. The extensive assembly instructions are on the Galileo web site. That's an assembled downloadable model in the image at right. Model kit designed for the Galileo Project by Dave Doody. Pathfinder The NASA Mars Pathfinder Project is offering a simple, free model of the Pathfinder Lander (Sagan Memorial Station) that you can download, cut out, and glue together. SCI won't be offering one, because Mattel Inc. has exclusive rights to commercial models of Pathfinder. NEAR Spacecraft The NASA Near Earth Asteroid Rendezvous (NEAR) project offers free model of the spacecraft that orbited, and then landed on the asteroid Eros. Image shows an assembled model. Pioneer 10 The NASA Pioneer Project is offering a nice, free model of the first spacecraft to leave the solar system. Here's an image of the completed model. Download, print, assemble! The instructions are all on the web site. ACE Here's a pair of models of the Advanced Composition Explorer designed by Jan Heirtzler. It's on the to the University of New Hampshire Space Science Group's site. Here's more about the ACE Mission. Yohkoh Solar Observatory The Institute for Space and Astronautical Sciences of Japan launched the Yohkoh satellite to study x-rays and gamma-rays from the Sun. The project is offering a unique, free model of the spacecraft which you assemble using spacecraft blueprints and components you supply, guided by an online program. Yet More Downloadable Models... Here are some more links to browse. JPL's Scale Models website offers several spacecraft and a Deep Space Network Tracking Antenna. The Lower Hudson Valley Paper Model Giftshop website has an incredible variety, including free downloadable models of a very wide variety of real spacecraft and launch vehicles. Here's the Japanese Nozomi spacecraft (formerly "Planet-B") , which is on its way to Mars. NASA Spacelink has lots of free downloadable scale models, including the Hubble Space Telescope, TERRA Satellite, Stardust (designed for the Stardust Project by Dave Doody), Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA), Mars Pathfinder, Mars Global Surveyor, Mars Climate Orbiter, Rossi X-ray Timing Explorer (RXTE), Landsat 7, High Energy Solar Spectroscopic Imager (HESSI), Genesis, Apollo lunar module, Space Shuttle, and the International Space Station (ISS). In addition to the free HST model listed on Spacelink, here's an ingenious do-it-yourself version of the HST model that uses PVC pipe for some of its parts. Mars Surveyor   |   SCI HOME PAGE   |   CATALOG   |   HOW TO ORDER   |   GREAT SPACE LINKS   |   FAQ  |