British Interplanetary Society Moon Ship With Lander 1939

British Interplanetary Society

Moon Rocket + Moon Lander

Sources:

Youtube Video:

Only a Paper Moon: The British Interplanetary Society's Lunar Spaceship

by Spaceflight Histories

Magazine Article:

To the Moon in a Space Ship, Newnes Practical Mechanics, March 1939

https://www.worldradiohistory.com/UK/Practical-Mechanics/30s/Practical-Mechanics-1939-03-S-OCR.pdf

Journal:

THE B.I.S. SPACE-SHIP.

By H. E. ROSS.

Journal of the British Interplanetary Society

No. XI January 1939 Vol. 5 No. 1 https://ia902905.us.archive.org/15/items/sim_journal-of-the-british-interplanetary-society_1939-01_5_1/sim_journal-of-the-british-interplanetary-society_1939-01_5_1.pdf

Also reference issue 2 of volume 5 of the Journal of the British Interplanetary Society for more information on the particulars of the design.

Of special note, Arthur C. Clarke was a contributor and member of the BIS.

Design Notes:

The rocket as presented in the journal is a very rough early iteration of a plan for a moon rocket. There are several incongruencies between the written descriptions and the sketches. Particularly in the number and pattern of the rockets. Stages 1 through 5 were described as having 168 large rockets per stage but they are arranged slightly differently. The sketches were hand drawn and not perfectly uniform and the pattern for each half of the arrangement did not start in the corners. In the bottom of the 6th stage, the text states that there are 45 medium sized rockets. The sketch shows many more. I wonder if they meant 45 times 6? In order to get the geometry to work out, I made this part to have 228 medium rockets and 624 small rockets. The lander has 624 small rockets instead of the described 600. The original design is described as having 2250 total rocket tubes .Yet 168*5+45+1200 =2085 and 168*5 + 45*6 +1200= 2310. My interpretation has a total of 2316 rockets.

Printing:

I used just under 1/2 of one kilogram of silver PLA for the complete rocket and another 63 g for the lander, Print time for the rocket was about 48 hours and another 6 for the lander.

Both the stl files and .3mf project files are included. The project files include splits and supports.

For the full rocket print the following: 

The split parts will need to be glued back together.

For the lander you will need to print the following:

To complete the lander first glue the capsule top to the Capsule engine block lander using the connector while making sure that the parts align. The legs are glued in place with the shorter leg going in the slot on the inside and the longer leg going in the grove on the outside. Finally glue on the feet.