SPACE IN MINIATURE

The Patrol Rocket Ship Astarte left Earth as the First Venus Expedition in 1971. She stopped at Space Station One (later renamed Terra Station) to top off her fuel supply of alcohol and liquid oxygen, and a droppable set of loaded fuel tanks were also added to the ship. These would allow the Astarte to lift back off from Venus and return to Earth using a slow but fuel efficient Hohmann orbit. The expedition soon passed beyond radio range, and no further reports of their progress were ever made.

108 years later, Interplanetary Space Patrol cadets Jensen, Dodson, and Jarman discovered the intact vessel on Venus, and after obtaining the cooperation of the natives, refueled her, and flew the recommissioned vessel to New Auckland at the Venus South Pole. The P.R.S. Astarte now resides there as a monument to the early days of space exploration.

ABOUT THE MODEL

Robert Heinlein was the first of the true 'hard-science' sci-fi authors. If it appears in his novels, it'll work, assuming someone pumps enough time, money, and materials into it. Today, none of us would build an interplanetary ship that ran on alcohol and liquid oxygen (the useful abbreviation "lox" was not in circulation then). But in 1948, that looked like a viable fuel.

And the dimensions of the Astarte were never given in the novel Space Cadet - so I had to do some extrapolation. I'm leaving out the math (hey, this was a modeling project, why was I crunching numbers?!?) but it works out that the Astarte, built in 1/200 scale, is 8.5 inches long (one hundred fourty one feet, same as a C-141A Starlifter, pre-stretch). I grabbed an Estes Moondog rocket kit, trimmed off the tailfins, shaved off the 'cabin' window, and filled the gap where the nosecone joins the fuselage. By adding one angled tailfin, the length came out perfectly!

The description in the book Space Cadet is minimal, but the ship's 'great sweeping wings' are mentioned, along with the fact that the only windows were in the cockpit. I used sheet acrylic for the wings, and painted the whole ship with Tamiya's Aluminum. Dry transfers were used for the ship's name, and minimalist markings. Sadly, I couldn't find any pancakes in 1/200 scale.

Image: Side view

Image: Top/front view