1/4 Scale Rover Project Options

[Bill Harris]

Going beyond the desktop model of a Rover, I'm building a scale model Rover at 1:4 scale. There is an abundance of photographs of the Rovers and the US Patent Office website has accurate line drawings in the patent files of the Rover. Go to the USPO website and search for D487,715 and D488,093 .

The first step is to build the Warm Equipment Box (WEB), which is the core of the Rover. At 1:4 scale, the WEB is 8.5" long, 5.5" wide and 4" high. The attached images are the initial, rough build of the WEB and the Rover Equipment Deck (RED).

I'm playing with the idea of making this a functional, radio-controlled scale model of the Rover, but this may be too much of a leap making it pretty _and_ functional. What I may do is make the display scale model first, then a non-scale workable model for R&D and then a working scale model.

I'm working on making realistic-looking solar cells. The actual dimension is 4cm x 2cm, which is 10mmx5mm at this scale, and there are 1100 of 'em. My first guess for material to surface the solar cells with is 1/4" magnetic tape (like videotape); it has a reasonable color and bright luster. Ideas and suggestions are welcome.

--Bill